Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery—no end to the prey.
The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots,
the horseman charging, and the flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies. They stumble on their bodies
because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft.
“Behold, I am against you,” says Yahweh of Armies, “and I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.
The charge and the sentence use the same figure
In 3:4 the city is a prostitute who sells nations. In 3:5–6 the sentence is public stripping, filth and exposure: the same figure carried through.
This site sets it here in full and does not soften or explain it.
Read 3:4–7 without skipping. Nothing here is paraphrased; compare it with any other translation you have.
I will throw abominable filth on you and make you vile, and will make you a spectacle.
It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste! Who will mourn for her?’ Where will I seek comforters for you?”
Who will mourn for her?
Are you better than No-Amon,* who was situated among the rivers,* who had the waters around her, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea?
or, Thebes
or, Nile
The city the argument rests on carries a footnote
The text names No-Amon. The WEB committee footnote reads, in full: “or, Thebes”. A second, on the rivers, reads “or, Nile”.
This site adds nothing about that city.
Open the footnote markers on Nahum 3:8. They are carried through from the source file, not written by this site.
Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength. Put and Libya were her helpers.
Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy.
All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs. If they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.
Behold, your troops among you are women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your bars.
Nineveh, and No-Amon
Nahum 1:1 – 3:18
Map of places named in Nahum; Nineveh, Assyria, No-Amon, Cush, Egypt and Put are drawn; Libya, Elkosh (in “the Elkoshite”) and Judah are named but not drawn; Bashan, Carmel and Lebanon (1:4) are named but left off this map.
- a place the text names, at the dataset's point
- a region: its name only, no border drawn
- approximate in the dataset: never a pin
Places on this map
- Nineveh Nahum 1:1 · drawn as a point OpenBible “Nineveh” 36.359, 43.153; row comment “Nineveh in KML”; cross-check: agrees with places.txt
- Assyria Nahum 3:18 · drawn as a region: its name only, no border drawn OpenBible “Assyria” 36.359, 43.153; flag “>” (the point stands for a surrounding area); row comment “region”; cross-check: places.txt has no numeric coordinate for this row
- No-Amon Nahum 3:8 · drawn as a point OpenBible “Thebes” 25.700, 32.639; cross-check: agrees with places.txt
- Cush Nahum 3:9 · drawn as a region: its name only, no border drawn OpenBible “Cush” 21.960, 31.344; flag “>” (the point stands for a surrounding area); cross-check: places.txt has no numeric coordinate for this row
- Egypt Nahum 3:9 · drawn as a region: its name only, no border drawn OpenBible “Egypt” 30.108, 31.338; flag “>” (the point stands for a surrounding area); row comment “region”; cross-check: places.txt has no numeric coordinate for this row
- Put Nahum 3:9 · drawn as approximate: an open ring, never a pin OpenBible “Put” 32.825, 21.858; flag “>” (the point stands for a surrounding area); row comment “?”; cross-check: places.txt has no numeric coordinate for this row
Named but not drawn
- Libya Nahum 3:9 · the dataset's "Libya" row does not cite Nahum 3:9 (it cites Ezek 30:5, Acts 2:10)
- Elkosh (in “the Elkoshite”) Nahum 1:1 · the dataset's "Elkosh" row has no coordinates
- Judah Nahum 1:15 · no geocoding row named "Judah" in the dataset
Coast: Natural Earth (public domain) · Places: OpenBible.info geocoding (CC BY)
Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong.
There the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the grasshopper. Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the locust.
You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips and flees away.
Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.
There is no healing your wound, for your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you, for who hasn’t felt your endless cruelty?
It ends on a question, and so does Jonah
The final verse of Nahum asks who has not felt this city’s endless cruelty. The final verse of Jonah asks whether God should not be concerned for the same city.
Neither book answers its own question.
The build asserts both final verses end in a question, Jonah’s inside its closing quotation mark. Read Jonah 4:11 and Nahum 3:19.
Right after the city is condemned, the text asks “Who will mourn for her?” and “Where will I seek comforters for you?”
Whose downfall would you find it hard to grieve?