Text -- Nahum 3:8 (NET)

Nineveh Will Suffer the Same Fate as Thebes

3:8 You are no more secure than Thebes– she was located on the banks of the Nile; the waters surrounded her, her rampart was the sea, the water was her wall.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Nah 3:8

¹ tn Heb “Are you better than Thebes?”

² tn Heb “No-Amon.” The name is transliterated by NAB, NASB; many other English versions employ the equivalent “Thebes.”

³ tn The relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר (’asher) is functioning in a possessive sense: “whose” (Job 37:17; Ps 95:5; Isa 5:28; 49:23; Jer 31:32; see HALOT 98 s.v. 4).

⁴ tn The consonantal form חיל is vocalized in the MT as חֵיל (khel, “rampart”). The LXX translation ἡ ἀρξή (Jh arxh, “strength”) reflects confusion between the relatively rare חֵיל and the more common חַיִל (khayil, “strength”); see HALOT 310-12.

⁵ tn Heb “from (the) sea.” The form should be emended to מַיִם (mayim, “water”). This is a figurative description of the Nile River: It functioned like a fortress wall for Thebes.