Nahum 3:14-15

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 

3:15 There the fire will consume ⁴  you;

the sword will cut you down;

it will devour ⁵  you like the young locust would.

The Assyrian Defenders Will Flee

Multiply yourself ⁶  like the young locust;

multiply yourself like the flying locust!

[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!”

[3:15]  ⁴ sn The expression the fire will consume you is an example of personification. Fire is often portrayed consuming an object like a person might consume food (Lev 6:3; 10:2; 16:25; Num 16:35; Deut 4:24; 5:22; Judg 9:15; 1 Kgs 18:38; 2 Kgs 1:10, 12, 14; 2 Chr 7:1; Isa 5:24; 10:17; 30:27, 30; 33:14; Amos 1:4, 7, 10, 12, 14; 2:2, 5; 5:6).

[3:15]  ⁵ tn The verb אָכַל (’akhal, “to consume, to devour”) is used twice for emphasis: “the fire will consume you, the sword…will devour you.”

[3:15]  ⁶ tc The root כָּבֵּד (kabbed, “be numerous”) is repeated for emphasis: the forms are the Hitpael infinitive absolute הִתְכַּבֵּד (hitkabbed) and Hitpael imperative הִתְכַּבְּדִי (hitkabbÿdi), both translated here as “Multiply yourself”). The infinitive absolute functions as an imperative (GKC §113.bb, 346). The BHS editors suggest emending the Hitpael infinitive absolute form הִתְכַּבֵּד to the Hitpael imperative form הִתְכַּבְּדִי in order to have two identical forms in this line. However, this is not necessary; the infinitive absolute is used for stylistic variation and often precedes imperatives to add urgency. The MT makes sense as it stands.