3:3 The charioteers 1 will charge ahead; 2
their swords 3 will flash 4
and their spears 5 will glimmer! 6
There will be many people slain; 7
there will be piles of the dead,
and countless casualties 8 –
so many that people 9 will stumble over the corpses.
3:5 I am against you,” declares the Lord who commands armies. 10
“I will strip off your clothes! 11
I will show your nakedness to the nations
and your shame to the kingdoms;
3:19 Your destruction is like an incurable wound; 12
your demise is like a fatal injury! 13
All who hear what has happened to you 14 will clap their hands for joy, 15
for no one ever escaped your endless cruelty! 16
1:15 (2:1) 17 Look! A herald is running 18 on the mountains!
A messenger is proclaiming deliverance: 19
“Celebrate your sacred festivals, O Judah!
Fulfill your sacred vows to praise God! 20
For never again 21 will the wicked 22 Assyrians 23 invade 24 you,
they 25 have been completely destroyed.” 26
1 tn Heb “a horseman.” Although the Hebrew term פָּרָס (paras, alternately spelled פָּרָשׂ [paras] here) could denote “horse” (1 Sam 8:11; Joel 2:4; Hab 1:8; Jer 46:4), the Hiphil participle מַעֲלֶה (ma’aleh, “cause to charge”) – the subject of which is פָּרָס – suggests that פָּרָס refers here to “horsemen” charging their horses (2 Sam 1:6; 1 Kgs 20:20; Jer 4:29; 46:4).
2 tn The term מַעֲלֶה (ma’aleh; the Hiphil participle “cause to charge”) refers to charioteers bringing war-horses up to a charge or attack (e.g., Jer 46:9; 51:27). On the other hand, the KJV translates this as “lifteth up [both the bright sword and the glittering sword],” while RV renders it as “mounts [his horse (or chariot)].”
3 tn Heb “a sword.”
4 tn Heb “flash of a sword.” Alternately, “swords flash.” Although לַהַב (lahav) can mean “blade” (Judg 3:22; 1 Sam 17:7), it means “flash [of the sword]” here (e.g., Hab 3:11; see HALOT 520 s.v.) as suggested by its parallelism with וּבְרַק (uvÿraq, “flashing, gleaming point [of the spear]”); cf. Job 20:25; Deut 32:41; Hab 3:11; Ezek 21:15.
5 tn Heb “a spear.”
6 tn Heb “and flash of a spear.” Alternately, “spears glimmer” (HALOT 162 s.v. בָּרָק).
7 tn Heb “many slain.”
8 tc The MT reads לַגְּוִיָּה (laggÿviyyah, “to the dead bodies”). The LXX reflects לְגוֹיָה (lÿgoyah, “to her nations”) which arose due to confusion between the consonant ו (vav) and the vowel וֹ (holem-vav) in an unpointed text.
9 tn Heb “they.”
10 tn Traditionally, “the
11 tn Heb “I will uncover your skirts over your face.”
19 tc The MT reads the hapax legomenon כֵּהָה (kehah, “relief, alleviation”). On the other hand, the LXX reads ἴασις (iasi", “healing”) which seems to reflect a reading of גֵּהָה (gehah, “cure, healing”). In the light of the LXX, the BHS editors suggest emending the MT to גֵּהָה (gehah) – which occurs only once elsewhere (Prov 17:22) – on the basis of orthographic and phonological confusion between Hebrew כ (kaf) and ג (gimel). This emendation would produce the common ancient Near Eastern treaty-curse: “there is no cure for your wound” (e.g., Hos 5:13); see HALOT 461 s.v. כֵּהָה; K. J. Cathcart, “Treaty-Curses and the Book of Nahum,” CBQ 35 (1973): 186; D. Hillers, Treaty-Curses and the Old Testament Prophets, 64-66.
20 tn Heb “your injury is fatal.”
21 tn Heb “the report of you.”
22 tn Heb “will clap their hands over you.”
23 tn Heb “For who ever escaped…?”
28 sn Beginning with 1:15, the verse numbers through 2:13 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 1:15 ET = 2:1 HT, 2:1 ET = 2:2 HT, etc., through 2:13 ET = 2:14 HT. Beginning with 3:1, the verse numbers in the English Bible and the Hebrew Bible are again the same.
29 tn Heb “the feet of a herald.”
30 tn Heb “a messenger of peace.” The Hebrew noun translated “peace” is sometimes used in reference to deliverance or freedom from enemy attack or destruction (e.g., Jer 4:10; 6:14; 8:11; 12:5; 28:9; 29:7).
31 sn The sacred vows to praise God were often made by Israelites as a pledge to proclaim the mercy of the
32 tc The LXX reflects the plural יוֹסִיפוּ (yosifu, “they shall [never]”). The MT reads the singular יוֹסִיף (yosif, “he shall [never]”) which is also found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4QpNah). The subject of the verb is the singular noun בְּלִיַּעַל (bÿliyya’al, “the wicked one”) which is also misunderstood by the LXX (see below).
33 tc The MT reads בְּלִיַּעַל (bÿliyya’al, “the wicked one”; so ASV, NASB). The LXX reading εἰς παλαίωσιν (ei" palaiwsin, “to old age”) mistakenly derived בְּלִיַּעַל from בָּלָה (balah, “to become worn”). There are several places in the book of Nahum where the LXX produced poor translations.
34 tn The term “Assyrians” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied from context for clarity. If left unspecified, the prophetic statement could be understood to mean that the wicked [i.e., wicked conquerors in general] would never again invade Judah. Cf. NLT “your enemies from Nineveh.”
35 tn Or “pass through you” (NASB); or “march against you”; NCV “attack you.”
36 tn Heb “he.” This is in agreement with the singular “wicked one” in the previous line.
37 tn Heb “he is completely cut off.”