Nahum 3:4-19

Taunt against the Harlot City

3:4 “Because you have acted like a wanton prostitute –

a seductive mistress who practices sorcery,

who enslaves nations by her harlotry,

and entices peoples by her sorcery –

3:5 I am against you,” declares the Lord who commands armies.

“I will strip off your clothes!

I will show your nakedness to the nations

and your shame to the kingdoms;

3:6 I will pelt you with filth;

I will treat you with contempt;

I will make you a public spectacle.

3:7 Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust;

they will say, ‘Nineveh has been devastated!

Who will lament for her?’

There will be no one to comfort you!”

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.

3:9 Cush and Egypt had limitless strength;

Put and the Libyans were among her allies.

3:10 Yet she went into captivity as an exile;

even her infants were smashed to pieces at the head of every street.

They cast lots for her nobility;

all her dignitaries were bound with chains.

3:11 You too will act like drunkards;

you will go into hiding;

you too will seek refuge from the enemy.

The Assyrian Defenses Will Fail

3:12 All your fortifications will be like fig trees with first-ripe fruit:

If they are shaken, their figs will fall into the mouth of the eater!

3:13 Your warriors will be like women in your midst;

the gates of your land will be wide open to your enemies;

fire will consume the bars of your gates.

3:14 Draw yourselves water for a siege!

Strengthen your fortifications!

Trample the mud and tread the clay!

Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls!

3:15 There the fire will consume you;

the sword will cut you down;

it will devour you like the young locust would.

The Assyrian Defenders Will Flee

Multiply yourself like the young locust;

multiply yourself like the flying locust!

3:16 Increase your merchants more than the stars of heaven!

They are like the young locust which sheds its skin and flies away.

3:17 Your courtiers are like locusts,

your officials are like a swarm of locusts!

They encamp in the walls on a cold day,

yet when the sun rises, they fly away;

and no one knows where they are.

Concluding Dirge

3:18 Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria!

Your officers are slumbering!

Your people are scattered like sheep on the mountains

and there is no one to regather them!

3:19 Your destruction is like an incurable wound;

your demise is like a fatal injury!

All who hear what has happened to you will clap their hands for joy,

for no one ever escaped your endless cruelty!