Chapter Three

1–7. Reflecting on the causes of the fearful judgment of God upon Nineveh, depicted in the first two chapters, the prophet here indicates these causes: a) in the fact that this criminal city mercilessly shed the blood of other peoples (v. 1–3) and b) in the fact that it served the peoples conquered by it as a corrupting and seductive example with regard to idolatry and vices of all kinds (v. 4–7). 8–13. Then the prophet proves the inevitability of the determination of God’s will concerning Nineveh’s destruction and the very possibility of this destruction: a) by pointing to the destruction of another strong city – Thebes (v. 8–10) and b) by the evident weakness of Nineveh, the insignificance of her fortifications and forces in the face of the enemy, who is the instrument of God the Avenger (v. 11–13). 14–19. Finally, once more the inevitability of Nineveh’s destruction is affirmed due to the complete inadequacy of the means of defense at her disposal; at the same time, the destruction of the world’s capital and world power will be met with universal joy by the peoples and nations subject to Assyria.

Nahum 3:1. Woe to the city of blood! all of it is full of lies and rapine; plunder does not cease in it. Nahum 3:2. The sound of the whip, the sound of the rumbling wheel, the noise of the galloping horse and the jolting chariot. Nahum 3:3. Horseman mounting, flash of sword and gleam of spear; abundance of slain, heaps of corpses and dead bodies without end; they stumble over the bodies. Before the God-enlightened vision of the prophet rises a whole sea of blood shed by Nineveh, which gave her the name “city of blood” (v. 1, cf. Ezek 22:2-4), as well as deception, violence, plundering. As a preacher of repentance, the prophet would wish to move Nineveh toward the path of moral self-reform, but at the same time as a God-enlightened seer of the future, he sees the complete impossibility of reform for Nineveh, which has reached the last degree of fall, and this dual feeling toward her is expressed often used by the prophets (Isa 10:1; Isa 18:1; Jer 48:1; Amos 6:1; Mic 2:1) sad exclamation “woe!” (Heb. hoy), as the prophet Zephaniah later spoke of Nineveh with the same exclamation “woe!” (Zeph 3:1), almost already a contemporary of the fulfillment of Nahum’s terrible prophecy about this capital of Assyria.

Nahum 3:2. The sound of the whip, the sound of the rumbling wheel, the noise of the galloping horse and the jolting chariot. Nahum 3:3. Horseman mounting, flash of sword and gleam of spear; abundance of slain, heaps of corpses and dead bodies without end; they stumble over the bodies. But the prophet’s reflection on the causes of Nineveh’s destruction is interrupted, as it were, by the now-heard and visible approach of the enemy army to it, and he gives an incomparable in beauty, vividness and force of depiction (if, of course, one reads the prophet’s speech in the Hebrew original 3) of the rapid movement of these executors of God’s judgment upon lawless Nineveh: there sounds the whistle of the horse whip, like an earthquake, the sound of the charioteer’s wheels, the trampling and neighing of horses, the rapid, rushing movement of chariots (v. 2), and then appears the enemy himself: in orderly and innumerable ranks rides the cavalry, flashing swords like flame and spears like lightning (3a), and at last there emerges a new terrible picture, as a consequence of the preceding: the prophet sees the dreadful place of bloodshed and on it – first a multitude of fallen, mortally wounded and lying in death agony, and then – whole heaps of corpses, countless multitude of bodies over which one cannot help but stumble (3b). Thus will be fulfilled over the “city of blood” the immutable law of God’s retribution for every murder (Gen 9:6), all the more for such a sea of shed blood.

Nahum 3:4. This is for the many harlotries of the harlot, charming and of witchcraft, who sells peoples through her harlotries and families through her witchcraft. Nahum 3:5. Behold, I am against you! declares the Lord of hosts. And I will lift up your skirts over your face, and I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. Nahum 3:6. And I will throw abominable filth upon you and make you vile and set you as a gazing stock. Nahum 3:7. And it shall be that all who see you will flee from you and say: “Nineveh is laid waste! Who will mourn for her? Where shall I find comforters for you? From the depiction of Nineveh’s guilt in various kinds of murders and bloodshed and her punishment for these crimes, the prophet moves on to the depiction of another kind of Nineveh’s crime – “harlotries,” Heb. zenunim, LXX porneia, Vulg. fornicationes. This expression, as well as the entire image under which in v. 4 Nineveh is represented, can be understood in two ways: in a narrower, special sense – in accordance with the prophetic view of the relationship of Jehovah to His people – Israel, as a marital union (Ezek 16:8; Hos 1-3 ch), and on the departure of the Israelites from the true God and turning to idolatry (Ezek 16:30-31; Hos 1:1 – Hos 3:1) – in the sense of idolatry – and in a broader sense. In the first sense understands the expression under consideration Blessed Theodoret, when he names as the cause of Nineveh’s destruction “idol deception and great impurity” of her (p. 16); likewise, according to Blessed Jerome, “Nineveh will be punished for the reason that she committed harlotry with many peoples and worshipped the idols of the entire world which she had subjected to herself” (p. 291), but such a special understanding of the term under consideration in relation to Nineveh, strictly speaking, cannot be applied, since there were no covenantal relations between Jehovah and pagan peoples (like the covenant with Israel); moreover, the text under consideration (v. 4–7) does not speak of Nineveh’s idolatry proper. Evidently, the expression under consideration must have a broader meaning, in which, however, the element of idolatry may not be absent, as in the Apocalypse (Rev 17:1 ff.) Babylon is named “the great harlot,” as the type of paganism. Thus, the name of harlotry in the passage under consideration may mean generally “the godless life of the Assyrians, who did not have God in their hearts and, carried away by their own passions, in essence loved only themselves and in their relations to others were guided by their self-love, which always covers itself with the mask of love and under its cover seeks the satisfaction of its own lust: so a harlot scatters her caresses on others only in pretense and under these caresses hides only the care for her own advantage. Such was Nineveh, which by all tricks and deceitful treaties attracted peoples to herself and subjected them to her power” (Simashkevich, p. 250–251). From this side, the seductive tactics of Nineveh were all too well known to Israel, which had repeatedly experienced through bitter experience all the deceptiveness of her scattered kindnesses and the given favorable promises (such was the activity of Tiglath-Pileser (2 Chr 28:20-21; 2 Sam 16:7-8; Isa 7:18-20; Shalmaneser – 2 Sam 18:13-17; and Sennacherib Isa 36:1; 2 Sam 18:1). The means for her purpose, for the harlot Nineveh, were: brilliant appearance and the appearance of invincible power and, besides, specific means of a magical nature. And the consequence of all this was the universal enslavement of all the surrounding tribes and peoples by her (v. 4). In this general interpretation of Nineveh’s sin, a more special interpretation given by Blessed Theodoret may be allowed: “Living in impiety and lawlessness, you seemed (Nineveh) glorious and famous to those who have no right to judge the essence of things, and abandoning the Creator and Savior, Who deemed you worthy of great mercy when you repented, you gave yourself over to sorcery and did everything by witchcraft... Not satisfied with your own impiety, you compelled your subjects to hold the same opinions as you” (p. 16). Such is the crime of Nineveh, and further, v. 5–7, indicates God’s punishment to her, which in its kind corresponds to the character of the crime, as the first crime of Nineveh – bloodshed – is to call forth corresponding retribution (v. 1–3). The stripping and extreme shaming of the harlot Nineveh is expressed by the prophet in harsh terms, but not unusual and found also in other prophets (Isa 47:2; Jer 13:22; Ezek 16:36-40; Hos 2:3) and, in general, characteristic of the East. “Since you, Nineveh, sold peoples through your harlotries and families through your witchcraft, and like a public woman of depravity, spread your legs to everyone, I myself will come to destroy you, – I will not send an Angel nor entrust the judgment to others. I will uncover your shameful parts before your face, so that before your eyes will be what you had not seen before. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your dishonor, so that those very ones with whom you committed harlotry will despise you, mock you and shame you, and you will serve as an example to those who see you. All of this is laid out under the image (sub metaphora) of an adulterous woman who, having been caught, is led before the people and shamed before the eyes of all” (Blessed Jerome, p. 295). According to Blessed Theodoret, everything said in v. 5–6, “is said in a figurative sense and taken from slaves subjected to great mockery and dishonor” (p. 16). Verse 7 indicates the consequence of Nineveh’s mockery and the attitude of other nations toward it. “Whoever sees that Nineveh is laid waste and that she has become an example to all will be frightened, amazed and say: who will be grieved for you, who can be your comforter? While you were powerful, you, as a cruel mistress, did not spare the elderly, did not pay attention to the child, and did not prepare anyone as a friend for the time of your grief, because you did not want to have anyone as a participant in your reign” (Blessed Jerome, p. 297).

Nahum 3:8. Are you better than Thebes, which is by the rivers, surrounded by water, whose wall was the sea, and sea was her rampart? Nahum 3:9. Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; the Libyans were her helpers. Nahum 3:10. Yet she was carried away, she went into captivity; even her young children were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets; and they cast lots for her honorable ones, and all her great ones were bound in chains. To eliminate any doubt regarding the possibility of the destruction of Nineveh depicted by the prophet (v. 1–3) and her extreme humiliation (v. 4–7), which was especially necessary in view of Nineveh’s deep self-confidence, considering herself impregnable, invincible (Nah 2:11; cf. Zeph 2:15), the prophet points to the destruction under the blows of Assyrian weapons of an even more powerful than Nineveh city of Upper Egypt – No, otherwise Diospolis (Onomast. 390), according to the accepted opinion in science, the Hundred-Gated Thebes (Jer 46:25; Ezek 30:14-15) with the famous oracle of the god Amun. The characteristics indicated in v. 8 ff. precisely fit this famous ancient city. The city of Thebes in Upper Egypt was a capital, as Memphis in Lower Egypt. Even in Homer’s time it was renowned for the greatest power and countless treasures (Iliad IX. 381–383), which gave it the name of the first of the cities of the world (Diod. Sicul. II, c. 2, § 4). It is precisely, – as indicated in v. 8, – located on both sides of the Nile, among the waterways and canals of this sacred river for the Egyptians, so that, like an impregnable fortress, it was surrounded by waters as if by walls. On the contrary, one cannot see in No-Amun either Alexandria 5 (an opinion based on the Chaldean translation and the testimony of Blessed Jerome, see p. 299–300), nor the so-called small Diospolis in Lower Egypt: the characteristics indicated in v. 8 fit each of these cities poorly, and moreover, a comparison of world-famous Nineveh with such an insignificant city as small Diospolis would be strange and unconvincing. For the great Diospolis or Thebes, the very name of the city of Amun is characteristic – from the temple of this god, built by Ramses I, pharaoh of the XVIII dynasty. In v. 9, the prophet, continuing his discourse, expresses the thought that the city of No-Amun was strong not only through the inaccessibility of its natural position and not only through its own power, but also through its numerous and equally powerful allies and defenders, named here in the direction from south to north with a subsequent turn to the west, namely the inhabitants of the land of Kush or Hush – Ethiopia (Gen 2:13; 2 Sam 19:9, see note to the last place – Exposing. Bible II, p. 549) and Mitzrayim – Egypt (in the very name of the latter – in the dual form – there is an indication of the two component parts of the country: Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt). Along with the Egyptians and Ethiopians, as the chief allies and defenders of No-Amun, are named still Put-Copts or Mauritanians (Jos. Flav. Jew. Antiq. 1:6, 2) and Luvim – Libyans (usually mentioned together in the Bible with Mitzrayim and Khush. 2 Chr 12:3; 2 Chr 16:8; Dan 11:43). In sharp contrast with the depicted power of No-Amun is the calamitous fate of it and its inhabitants after the taking and devastation of the city, the captivity and extreme humiliation of its inhabitants – v. 10. The prophet apparently speaks of the recent and still fresh in the memory of the Assyrians and Jews the taking of No-Amun or Thebes, accomplished namely by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, son of Sennacherib (the captor of Manasseh 2 Chr 32:11), named on Assyrian monuments not simply as a king, but also as the conqueror of Mitzrayim and Khush (see in Simashkevich, p. 27:6–284). On the contrary, it is completely unacceptable the opinion of Blessed Theodoret, Blessed Jerome and some modern interpreters, who see in v. 10 an indication (or rather a prophecy) of the final destruction of Thebes by Cambyses in 525 BC. The prophet intensifies the striking force of the event even more with three pictures of the barbarism of the conquerors of the city of No-Amun, and since the conquerors of this city, having dealt so cruelly with its inhabitants, were the Assyrians, these new touches of a whole terrible picture could, by the intention of the prophet, intensify the coming retribution for Nineveh and all Assyria, once again indicating the complete justice and deservedness of the awaiting punishment (the commonness of such pictures during wars and conquests in the East is proved by comparing for example 2 Sam 8:12; Hos 10:14; Isa 13:16; Ps 13:9; Judg 5:30; Deut 20:1; Judg 16:21 and others);

Nahum 3:11. You also will be drunk and hidden; you also will seek a refuge from the enemy. Nahum 3:12. All your fortifications are like fig trees with early figs: if shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. Nahum 3:13. Behold, your troops are women in your midst; the gates of your land are opened wide to your enemies; fire devours your bars. A completely similar fate unavoidably awaits Nineveh. She is destined to drink and drain the cup of God’s wrath (cf. Ps 74:9; Jer 25:15-17; Jer 51:7; Hab 2:16 and others). “As if into drunkenness some disaster will overtake you and rushing here and there, you will seek some deliverance from the evils oppressing you, but will not find it... Like fig trees shaken by the wind, from which it is easy for unripe figs to fall, you will be deprived of inhabitants: your brave warriors, seized with fear, will be no different from women; but without effort the gates will open to you when fire consumes the posts, and like a flood, the hostile ones will break through them” (Blessed Theodoret, p. 18). In v. 11 the noteworthy expression “you will be hidden” tehi nahlama: the wonderful accuracy of the fulfillment of this prophecy can be seen in the fact that the ruins of once-famous, world-renowned Nineveh soon after the fateful event of 606 years indeed fell into oblivion and long remained completely unknown to the world, and at the present time, with the establishment of the location of ancient Nineveh, its ruins still present a sad picture of hopelessly and irretrievably lost, completely destroyed and despised greatness. In v. 12–13 is shown the ease and unobstructed nature of the conquest and fall of Nineveh, the inevitability and certainty of which was shown in v. 8–11. The comparison used in v. 12 of Nineveh’s fortifications to early-ripening figs biккurim bears a Palestinian color: this type of figs ripened not only in June, but even earlier (Mark 11:13), whereas the normal season for gathering figs is only the end of August; they are held on the tree very loosely and easily fall (Isa 28:4; Hos 9:10; Mic 7:1; Jer 24:4). So all Assyria’s strongholds will fall into the hands of the enemies without effort on their part. The first half of verse 13 explains the cause of the ease of Nineveh’s conquest – a decisive collapse of courage in the army: Assyrian warriors through despondency and cowardice will be like women (cf. Isa 19:16; Jer 50:37; Jer 51:30). In the 2nd half of the verse not only is there once more an indication of the ease of conquest of Assyria’s chief strongholds, but there is also shown the very manner of their destruction, namely the unusual speed of the fateful catastrophe: “the gates of your land are opened wide to your enemies, fire devours your bars.” In the latter words some see an indication of the Assyrian custom – when besieging cities and fortresses to use lit torches with the purpose of setting fire to the door posts and thus opening access to the besieged city; they will do likewise to them.

Nahum 3:14. Draw your water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses; go into the mud and trample the clay; rebuild your brick furnace. Nahum 3:15. There fire will consume you, the sword will cut you down, it will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust, multiply like the grasshopper! Nahum 3:16. You have increased your merchants more than the stars of heaven; the locust sheds its skin and flees. Nahum 3:17. Your guards are like grasshoppers and your generals like swarms of locusts, which nestle in the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they scatter, and no one knows where they are. Just as in chapter II verse 1, Heb. 2, so also here, v. 14, the prophet with bitter irony advises Nineveh to exert all her strength, employ all means of defending the city against the besieging enemies, but all these efforts and measures will be completely fruitless, v. 15–17. Blessed Theodoret expresses the general thought of this section thus: “Do not rely on these strongholds, for they will render you no aid, but like mud, which for making bricks from it is trampled together with chaff, you will be trampled by those who have fallen upon you: the city will be burned, and you inhabitants will be struck by all kinds of arrows, as locusts and gnats will be destroyed to the end – all of you; the riches that you gathered from everywhere and which are also no less difficult to count than the stars of the sky, the hostile ones will take” (p. 18–19). In v. 17, two words stand in the Hebrew original: minnetzarim and tiphsarim, whose phylological structure, etymological formation and precise meaning are difficult to determine. Jewish interpreters (for example, Abarbanel) derived minnetzarim from Heb. nezer diadem, transmitted the meaning of this term thus: principes, quorum capitibus diadema et corona inest. In modern times, Gesenius, König and others have associated this word with the word nazir, prince, consecrated, Nazirite. But according to the more accepted opinion in science (Jeremiah, Jensen, Zimmer), both minnetzarim and tiphsarim – both of Assyrian root and are names of important military positions or ranks in the Assyrian army; the prototype of the first is considered to be Assyr. massaru (tanzaru) “guards,” and the second – Assyr. dupsarru (tupsams) “scribes.” In any case, the comparison of Assyrian military commanders to locusts and gnats (v. 17) indicates simultaneously – the extraordinary multitude of them, and the particular speed with which they will disappear, rendering Nineveh no protection.

Nahum 3:18. Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; your nobles rest; your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them. Nahum 3:19. There is no healing for your wound; your injury is severe. All who hear the news of you will clap their hands over you, for upon whom has not your cruelty continually passed? In concluding his prophetic “burden” upon Nineveh, the prophet once more returns to the thought of the inevitable, by God’s judgment, fatal end of Nineveh. Addressing in the person of the Assyrian king the whole proud Asshur, the prophet proclaims to him the coming deathly peace on his territory, namely: the bewitching eternal sleep of death awaits all the representatives, leaders and commanders of the Assyrian people, who will fall by the enemy’s sword in the very first engagement with the foe; the soldiers, left without leaders, will flee, and along with the army will flee and scatter over the mountains, like sheep without a shepherd, all the inhabitants of Assyria (cf. 1 Sam 22:17; Zech 13:7; Ezek 34:6). With this, the political existence of the powerful world Assyrian power will be completely terminated. And this fall of Nineveh together with the destruction of the entire state, despite all its tragedy, will provoke in the surrounding peoples not sorrow, compassion and regret, but amazed joy and a sense of deep satisfaction at the death of the cruel mistress of the world – Nineveh, who brought them nothing but great evil and harm. “Recalling the misfortunes you have caused them, they will rejoice that you also suffer the same, and will clap their hands” (Blessed Theodoret, p. 20). The fearful prophecy of Nahum concerning the fate of Nineveh was fulfilled with complete accuracy in the destruction of Nineveh and with it the whole of Assyria by the united forces of the Medes and Babylonians. A brief, but accurate account of this important world event is read in the book of Tobit (Tob 14:15); this testimony is confirmed by comparison with similar testimonies of classical writers – Herodotus, Abydenus, Alexander Polyhistor, Ctesias, and especially by the data of the inscription of Nabonidus discovered in 1894, where the chronological date of the destruction of Nineveh and the fall of Assyria is indicated – 607 or 606 BC – a date which can now be recognized as generally accepted in science (Cf. in Simashkevich, p. 324–341; in Prof. N. M. Drozdov, On the Origin of the Book of Tobit Kiev. 1901, p. 515–527; cf. Exposing. Bible, v. III, p. 691–692). * * * Blessed Jerome remarks to v. 2–3: “In the Hebrew text the depiction of the army preparing for war is so beautiful and so like a picture that my speech is much weaker” (p. 290) Blessed Theodoret clearly has in mind Nineveh’s repentance following the preaching of the prophet Jonah Vulg.: numquid es melior Alexandria populorum. The reading of the first half of v. 8 in the LXX and Slavic is obscure and unclear. Slavic: “will prepare a portion, will arrange a string, prepare a portion to Amun”