Nahum 3:1-19

3:1-13 | Sometimes woe is an expression of grief, but here it foreshadows the impending bloodbath in Nineveh. The deaths would be so many that the invaders would stumble over the corpses. The Lord condemned the Assyrians for three sins: their cruel atrocities, their greedy exploitation of others (harlotries, sorceries), and their delusion that they could insulate themselves from destruction. Bloody city represents not just Nineveh but the Assyrian nation – one of the most barbaric peoples that ever existed.

3:8 | No Amon (that is, Thebes or the city of the god Amon) was the Egyptian capital, and like Nineveh, it was surrounded by rivers, tributaries, canals, and moats. However, just as No Amon’s defenses could not protect it from the Assyrians (the city fell to them in 663 BC), so Nineveh’s defenses would not protect it either.

3:14-15 | Nahum sarcastically urges the Ninevites to draw plenty of water in case of fire and to fortify their strongholds, telling them to make more bricks to build a city’s battlements higher and stronger. Even if the Ninevites strengthened their defenses, fire would consume them and the sword would cut them off. The walls of Nineveh would entomb the city rather than save it.

3:18-19 | This concluding statement describes the finality of Nineveh’s devastation. Nahum’s belief in God’s promises is so certain that he speaks in the present tense, as if they have already happened.