TEXT [Commentary]

  D.   Second Description of Nineveh’s Demise (3:1-7)

1 What sorrow awaits Nineveh,

the city of murder and lies!

She is crammed with wealth

and is never without victims.

2 Hear the crack of whips,

the rumble of wheels!

Horses’ hooves pound,

and chariots clatter wildly.

3 See the flashing swords and glittering spears

as the charioteers charge past!

There are countless casualties,

heaps of bodies—

so many bodies that

people stumble over them.

4 All this because Nineveh,

the beautiful and faithless city,

mistress of deadly charms,

enticed the nations with her beauty.

She taught them all her magic,

enchanting people everywhere.

5 “I am your enemy!”

says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.

“And now I will lift your skirts

and show all the earth your nakedness and shame.

6 I will cover you with filth

and show the world how vile you really are.

7 All who see you will shrink back and say,

‘Nineveh lies in ruins.

Where are the mourners?’

Does anyone regret your destruction?”

NOTES

3:1 What sorrow. The Hebrew text reads hoy [TH1945, ZH2098] (woe). As Longman (1993:812) points out, “Woe-oracles are quite common in prophetic literature (Isa 5:18-19; Amos 5:18-20; 6:1-7; Mic 2:1-4) to name only a few.” Woe oracles typically contain the following elements: invective (“woe to”), threat, and criticism (the reason for the denunciation and threatened judgment).

city of murder. Lit., “city of blood.” Maier (1959:292) notes the extreme cruelty of the Assyrians and remarks, “The atrocious practice of cutting off hands and feet, ears and noses, gouging out eyes, lopping off heads and then binding them to vines or heaping them up before city gates; the utter fiendishness by which captives could be impaled or flayed alive through a process in which their skin was gradually and completely removed—this planned frightfulness systematically enforced by the ‘bloody city’ was now to be avenged.” For examples of Assyrian cruelty and rapacity, see Luckenbill 1926:2.304, 309; see also Freeman 1985:36-38; Maier 1959:281-283.

lies! The Assyrian practice of using deception as a psychological tool to gain the submission of a besieged city can be illustrated from the archives of the Assyrian kings. Saggs (1969a:17) finds an interesting parallel to Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem (2 Kgs 18:15–19:37) in the records of Tiglath-pileser III (745–727 BC).

3:2 The short phraseology that makes up vv. 2-3 yields a dramatic effect. The verses are characterized by a staccato style and filled with words that take on an almost onomatopoeic quality. It is a fine example of picturesque brevity. There is also progression in the individual lines that comprise the passage, providing a strong touch of realism.

crack . . . rumble. The word qol (twice in the verse) [TH6963, ZH7754] (noise, voice) is found in a similar martial context in Joel 2:4-5. Whereas Joel speaks of the horses running and of the chariots, Nahum focuses on the rumbling of the chariot wheels. Although ra‘ash [TH7494, ZH8323] (“shake”; here, with qol = “rumble”) is at times used for the din of battle (Isa 9:5 [4]; Jer 10:22), it is often used for the shaking of the earth (Amos 1:1; cf. the verbal root in Judg 5:4; 2 Sam 22:8; Ps 68:8; 77:18).

chariots clatter. This phrase exhibits both alliteration and assonance: umerkabah meraqqedah. The verb raqad [TH7540, ZH8376] (clatter) is related to Akkadian raqadu (“leap/skip”; cf. also Ugaritic rqdm, “dancers”; Arabic raqada, “leap”). The Assyrian battle chariot was feared far and wide. Sennacherib called his private war chariot “The Vanquisher of the Wicked and Evil” and also “The Vanquisher of the Enemy.” (For the text, see Borger 1963: table 49, V:70; table 50, VI:8; for English translation, see Luckenbill 1926:126-127.)

3:3 flashing swords and glittering spears. Both descriptions provide picturesque images of awesome battle weapons, reflecting the sunlight in their wielders’ hands. Both adjectives are used frequently in military contexts under various figures (cf. 2:4; Deut 32:41; Job 39:23; Ezek 21:15; Hab 3:11).

casualties. The next four lines contain three terms for the bodies of those slain in battle: khalal [TH2491, ZH2728] (slain), peger [TH6297, ZH7007] (corpse), and gewiyah [TH1472, ZH1581] (dead body). One is reminded of the frequent Assyrian boast of leaving behind a host of dead bodies after the battle. Note, for example, Ashurnasirpal’s boast at the siege of Damdamusa:

With the masses of my troops and by my furious battle onset I stormed, I captured the city; 600 of their warriors I put to the sword; 3,000 captives I burned with fire; I did not leave a single one among them alive to serve as a hostage. Hulai, their governor, I captured alive. Their corpses I formed into pillars; their young men and maidens I burned in the fire. Hulai, their governor, I flayed; his skin I spread upon the wall of the city of Damdamusa; the city I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire. (Luckenbill 1926:146)

Roberts (1991:73) remarks, “There are so many dead bodies that the attackers stumble over them in their advance, and it seems clear from the larger context that these dead are the defenders and inhabitants of Nineveh. The city of bloody oppression is getting its own treatment in full measure.”

3:4 All this because. Scholars and translators have disagreed as to whether, syntactically, v. 4 continues v. 3 (so NIV) or belongs with v. 5 (so NRSV). The NLT rightly takes the verse as an independent, transitional verse between vv. 1-3 and 5-7. As such, it forms a literary hinge between the two subunits. On literary hinging, see Parunak 1983:540-541.

deadly charms. Lit., “sorceries.” Nineveh is the enchantress par excellence.

enticed. Lit., “sells.” The Hebrew verb is related to the Akkadian makaru (use in business). Nineveh is thus described as “she who makes merchandise of the nations” by her numerous harlotries and sorceries.

people everywhere. Heb. mishpakhah [TH4940, ZH5476] (lit., “families”). This Hebrew noun is often used in a sense wider than the English term, meaning “clan,” “kindred.” In Josh 7:16-18 it designates one of the clans of the tribe of Judah. The noun can refer to familial relations at several levels or have a still wider use (cf. Gen 12:3; 28:14; Zech 14:17). For, at times, it forms a subunit of the terms goyim [TH1471, ZH1580] (nations) and ‘ammim [TH5971A, ZH6639] (peoples); or mishpakhah even appears as a parallel term to goyim (e.g., Gen 12:2-3). Nahum, then, may mean here both nations and the peoples who compose them.

3:5 lift your skirts. Such actions were often applied as punishment for prostitution (cf. Jer 13:22, 26-27; Ezek 16:37-39; 23:10, 29; Hos 2:3, 9-10). Several scholars have followed the lead of Hillers (1964:58-60) in seeing a relation between the biblical data cited here and the curse pronounced in an Aramaic inscription of Sefire: “[And just as] a [ha]r[lot is stripped naked], so may the wives of Mati‘el be stripped naked, and the wives of his offspring and the wives of [his] no[bles]” (COS 2.213).

3:6 show the world how vile you really are. The Hebrew verb here carries the significance “treat as a fool,” hence “treat contemptuously.” Nineveh will be treated as that which is detestable, as an utter disgrace and a public spectacle.

3:7 shrink back. Lit., “flee.” The Greek tradition renders the Hebrew text by such verbs as apopēdēsetai (will leap away), katabēsetai [cf. TG2597A, ZG2849] (will descend), and anachōrēsei [TG402, ZG432] (will draw back), suggesting uncertainty in the exemplar or lack of understanding of the root (cf. Maier 1959:313).

shrink back . . . Nineveh . . . ruins . . . the mourners. Nahum skillfully plays both on sounds and meaning of these words in the verse. He intentionally heaps up the letters daleth and nun, each occurring five times in this verse.

COMMENTARY [Text]

The woe oracle of these verses includes a catalog of the Assyrians’ crimes. Nineveh itself was guilty of bloody atrocities and deceptive practices. The latter description depicts the Assyrians’ use of treachery and alluring platitudes to gain others’ loyalty. They also employed psychological warfare, couching their words in false promises and outright lies to gain the submission of enemy cities in times of siege (cf. 2 Kgs 18:28-32). Their idolatry, arrogant pride (cf. Zeph 2:15), and misrepresentation of God himself (2 Kgs 19:21-27) were particularly loathsome. Nineveh’s ravenous appetite for robbery and plunder is also mentioned, a trait that harkens back to the preceding taunt song and the figure of Nineveh as a lion’s den to which her ill-gotten prey was taken. In every way, then, Nineveh was known to all as a wicked city (cf. Jonah 1:2).

So many would lose their lives—and for what? It was because Nineveh housed an unalterably proud, selfish, and unholy people. The Assyrians had made Nineveh a splendid and sophisticated metropolis by making merchandise out of other nations and people, either through military might or economic exploitation. Nineveh had played the harlot via such seductions. Accordingly, they who had so maliciously treated others would receive just recompense for their deeds, while the city itself would lie in ruins with none to mourn its demise.

This passage reminds all that God is a God of justice (Ps 9:7-8), who abhors sin and will reward men and nations equitably in accordance with their deeds (Ps 67:4; Isa 1:27; Jer 46:28; Joel 3:1-8; Acts 17:31). This truth is in harmony with the further scriptural revelation that the Messiah will bring justice to the nations (Isa 42:1-4; Matt 12:18-21). His justice will include the judging of the great harlot of the future, the worldwide socio-religio-economic system known prophetically as Babylon (Rev 17). This world system will be brought to an end (Rev 18) by the returning Christ (Rev 19:1-3, 11-21), who “judges fairly” (Rev 19:11) and whose “judgments are true and just” (Rev 19:2). In addition, his just activity will culminate in the establishment of salvation and righteousness for all (Isa 51:4-6). Seeing, then, that they may look forward with confidence to that time when the earth will be administered in true and holy justice (Isa 32:1; Ezek 34:16; Rev 15:3-4), believers should be challenged to act justly here and now (Mic 6:8; cf. Isa 1:17; Jer 7:5) and entrust their lives to him “who always judges fairly” (1 Pet 2:23).

The passage also reminds believers that when the wicked have received just judgment for their sins, there will be none to comfort or mourn for them. How much better to have lived so that others will not only be touched with compassion in one’s time of passing but be blessed by the remembrance of a gracious life and godly testimony (Prov 10:7; cf. Prov 22:1).