Nineveh's Reckoning
Nineveh sold nations by her sorceries, and our Father strips and exposes her with no one to comfort her. Thebes fell the same way, infants and all. Her merchants strip the land and fly off like locusts. The wound is fatal, and everyone who hears applauds.
3 1Woe to the city of bloodshed, all full of lies and plunder—the prey never departs! 2The crack of the whip, the rumble of wheels, galloping horses, and bounding chariots! 3Charging horsemen, flashing swords, glittering spears—a multitude of slain, a heap of corpses, bodies without end; they stumble over the dead. 4All because of the rampant prostitution of this seductive prostitute, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations through her prostitution and peoples through her sorceries.
5"Look, I am against you,' declares the Father of heaven's armies, 'and I will lift your skirts over your face; I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame. 6I will pelt you with filth, treat you with contempt, and make you a spectacle.' 7And all who see you will flee from you and say, 'Nineveh is laid waste; who will grieve for her?' Where can I find comforters for you?'"
8Are you better than Thebes, that sat by the Nile with water all around her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was the waters? a a v8 Thebes — the great capital of upper Egypt — was itself destroyed by Assyria; Nahum holds up its fall as a warning that Nineveh is no safer. 9Cush was her strength, and Egypt without limit; Put and the Libyans were among her allies. 10Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. They cast lots for her honored men, and all her great men were bound in chains. 11You too will be drunk; you will go into hiding; you too will seek refuge from the enemy. 12All your fortresses are like fig trees with the first-ripe figs—when shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. 13Look, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are flung wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars. b b v13 Calling troops women was an ancient taunt meaning they had lost all their fighting courage.
14Draw water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses; go into the clay and tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold! 15There the fire will devour you; the sword will cut you down; it will consume you like the young locust. Multiply yourselves like the young locust; multiply like the swarming locust! 16You multiplied your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The young locust strips the land and flies away. 17Your guards are like locusts, and your officials like clouds of locusts that settle on the walls on a cold day—when the sun rises, they fly off, and no one knows where they are.
18Your shepherds are asleep, king of Assyria; your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered across the mountains, with no one to gather them. 19There is no relief for your injury; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news of you clap their hands over you—for who has not felt your endless cruelty pass over them again and again?
