Nahum 3:14

3:14 Draw yourselves water for a siege! ¹ 

Strengthen your fortifications!

Trample the mud ²  and tread the clay!

Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls! ³ 

Nahum 3:7

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!” ⁴ 

[3:14]  ¹ tn Heb “waters of siege.”

[3:14]  ² tn Heb “go into the mud.”

[3:14]  ³ tn Heb “Take hold of the mud-brick mold!”

[3:7]  ⁴ tc While the MT reads 2nd person feminine singular לָךְ (lakh, “for you”), the LXX reads αὔτή (Jauth, “for her”). The Dead Sea Scrolls from Wadi Murabba’at read לך (“for you”). The MT reading is preferred for several reasons: (1) it is supported by the scrolls from Wadi Murabba’at; (2) it is the most difficult reading; and (3) it explains the origin of the LXX which probably harmonized this with the preceding 3rd person feminine singular pronoun. Abrupt switches from third to second person are commonly found in poetic and prophetic literature (e.g., Deut 32:15; Isa 5:8; Jer 29:19; Job 16:7) as well as in Northwest Semitic curses (see S. Gevirtz, “West-Semitic Curses and the Problem of the Origins of Hebrew Law,” VT 11 [1961]: 147, n. 4).