¹ tn Heb “of Nineveh.”

² tn Heb “Nineveh, the great city.”

⁵ tn Heb “to her wall,” referring to Nineveh.

⁵ tn Heb “Nineveh, the great city.” The description “the great city” stands in apposition to “Nineveh.”

⁵ sn Calah (modern Nimrud) was located twenty miles north of Nineveh.

³ sn The descendants of Arphaxad may have lived northeast of Nineveh.

³ sn Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city situated on the Tigris River.

¹ tn Heb “and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; it [i.e., Calah] is the great city.”

¹ tn Heb “and Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and lived in Nineveh.”

¹ tn Heb “and Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and lived in Nineveh.”

² tn The phrase “bloody city” is used of Nineveh in Nah 3:1.

¹ tn The term “Nineveh” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied from context.

⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people of Nineveh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹ sn Nineveh was like a pool of water. This is an appropriate simile because Nineveh was famous for its artificial pools, many of which serviced the royal gardens. Two rivers also flowed through the city: the Tebiltu and the Khoser.

⁴ sn The name Rehoboth-Ir means “and broad streets of a city,” perhaps referring to a suburb of Nineveh.

⁷ tn Heb “it.” The pronoun functions as a synecdoche of container for contents, referring to the people of Nineveh.

¹ tn Heb “has commanded concerning you.” The referent of the 2nd person masculine singular suffix (“you”) probably refers to the Assyrian king (cf. 3:18-19) rather than to the personified city of Nineveh (so NIV). Elsewhere in the book of Nahum, the city of Nineveh is referred to by the feminine rather than masculine gender. Some modern English versions supply terms not in the Hebrew text to indicate the addressee more clearly: NIV “Nineveh”; NLT “the Assyrians in Nineveh.”

² tn Or “Nineveh [is] like a pool of water.” Either a present tense or a past tense verb may be supplied.

¹ sn Ironically, Sennacherib had recently planted fig trees along all the major avenues in Nineveh to help beautify the city, and had encouraged the citizens of Nineveh to eat from these fruit trees. How appropriate that Nineveh’s defenses would now be compared to fig trees whose fruit would be eaten by its enemies.

³ sn Apparently Jonah hoped that he might have persuaded the Lord to “change his mind” again (see 3:8-10) and to judge Nineveh after all.