CHAPTER 3 Dec. 11 
A Woe to Nineveh 
Woe to the city of blood! It is all full of lies and robbery- no end to the prey! 2The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots, 3the horseman mounting, 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, 4because 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. 5Behold, 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. 6I will throw abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and will set you a spectacle. 7It 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?  8Are 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? 9Cush and Egypt were her infinite strength. Put and Libya were her helpers. 10Yet 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 honourable men, and all her senior leaders were bound in chains. 11You also will be drunken. You will go into hiding. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy. 12All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. 13Behold, your troops in your midst are like women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your bars. 14Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong. 15There the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the grasshopper. You have multiplied like grasshoppers, bred like the locust. 16You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips, and flees away. 17Your 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. 18Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down, your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them. 19There is no healing for 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?

Commentary

3:4 And families- One aspect of the sin of prostitution and much sexual sin is that it destroys families; and God is a family God who has created the family unit as His preferred method for His people.
3:5,6 The language of these verses is extreme. This is the fully legitimate anger of God against those who abuse His people and sin against Him. The grace and kindness of God shouldn’t let us forget His wrath with sin which is also a part of His total character and personality.
3:7 Nineveh is laid waste- At the time Nahum was speaking, she was prosperous and powerful. But God’s word is so sure of fulfilment that He can speak in the present tense, speaking of things which haven’t yet happened as if they have (Rom. 4:17). We also, by faith, must view this world with the same eyes. It’s all over for this world, right here and now, so certain is it that Christ will return and establish His Kingdom upon the ruins of the kingdoms of men.
3:9 Infinite strength- Egypt is presented in the Bible as representative of human strength. It appeared that their strength was infinite, but only God has infinite strength. This is an example of how the Bible often speaks of situations as they appear to people on earth, even though this is not ultimately how things are. The language of demons in the New Testament is another example. God sometimes adopts a human perspective in reasoning with us, in order to connect with us; just as we do when trying to communicate with and explain things to those e.g. children who understand something far less than we do.