# Nahum 03 đ: Woe to the City of Blood
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> [!info] Table of Contents
> [[#đ Scripture Text (NET)]]
> [[#đ Verse-by-Verse Commentary]]
> [[#đ¤ Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]]
> [[#đ§ Chapter Summary]]
> [[#âď¸ Christ in This Chapter]]
> [[#đ Key Principles / đ Life Application]]
> [[#đŹ Discussion Questions]]
> [[#âď¸ Key Verses to Remember]]
> [[#đ Related Passages/Cross Reference]]
> [[#đ Devotional Reflection]]
> [[#đ Internal Notes]]
## đ Scripture Text (NET)
(The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005)
### Reason for Judgment: Sins of Nineveh
[[#Verse 01.]]Â Woe to the city guilty of bloodshed!
She is full of lies;
she is filled with plunder;
she has hoarded her spoil!
### Portrayal of the Destruction of Nineveh
[[#Verse 02.]]Â The chariot drivers will crack their whips;
the chariot wheels will shake the ground.
The chariot horses will gallop;
the war chariots will bolt forward!
[[#Verse 03.]] The charioteers will charge ahead;
their swords will flash
and their spears will glimmer!
There will be many people slain;
there will be piles of the dead
and countless casualtiesâ
so many that people will stumble over the corpses.
### Taunt against the Harlot City
[[#Verse 04.]] Because you have acted like a wanton prostituteâ
a seductive mistress who practices sorcery,
who enslaves nations by her harlotry,
and entices peoples by her sorceryâ
[[#Verse 05.]] âI am against you,â declares the Lord of Heavenâs Armies.
âI will strip off your clothes!
I will show your nakedness to the nations
and your shame to the kingdoms.
[[#Verse 06.]]Â I will pelt you with filth;
I will treat you with contempt;
I will make you a public spectacle.
[[#Verse 07.]]Â Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust;
they will say, âNineveh has been devastated!
Who will lament for her?â
There will be no one to comfort you!â
### Nineveh Will Suffer the Same Fate as Thebes
[[#Verse 08.]] You are no more secure than Thebesâ
she was located on the banks of the Nile;
the waters surrounded herâ
her rampart was the sea,
the water was her wall.
[[#Verse 09.]] Cush and Egypt had limitless strength;
Put and the Libyans were among her allies.
[[#Verse 10.]]Â 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.
[[#Verse 11.]]Â You too will act like drunkards;
you will go into hiding;
you too will seek refuge from the enemy.
### The Assyrian Defenses Will Fail
[[#Verse 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.
[[#Verse 13.]]Â 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.
[[#Verse 14.]]Â Draw yourselves water for a siege!
Strengthen your fortifications!
Trample the mud and tread the clay!
Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls!
[[#Verse 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!
[[#Verse 16.]] Increase your merchants more than the stars of heaven!
They are like the young locust that sheds its skin and flies away.
[[#Verse 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
[[#Verse 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.
[[#Verse 19.]]Â 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!
## đ Verse-by-Verse Commentary
###### Overall.
###### Verse 01.
###### Verse 02.
###### Verse 03.
###### Verse 04.
###### Verse 05.
###### Verse 06.
###### Verse 07.
###### Verse 08.
###### Verse 09.
###### Verse 10.
###### Verse 11.
###### Verse 12.
###### Verse 13.
###### Verse 14.
###### Verse 15.
###### Verse 16.
###### Verse 17.
###### Verse 18.
###### Verse 19.
## đ¤ Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights
1. Assyrian royal inscriptions openly boast of brutal treatment of conquered peoples.
2. Thebes (3:8), called No-Amon in Hebrew, was a great city of Egypt on the Nile.
3. The Assyrian king Ashurbanipal sacked Thebes around 663 BC.
4. Cush, Put, and Libya (3:9) were African allies of Egypt.
5. Fortresses falling like ripe figs into the mouth of the eater (3:12) pictures how easily Nineveh would fall.
6. 3:15-17 compares Nineveh's merchants and officials to locusts that fly away.
7. Nineveh was so thoroughly destroyed that when the Greek general Xenophon passed the site in 401 BC, he did not identify it as Nineveh.
8. Archaeologists began excavating Nineveh in the 1840s.
9. Excavations at Nineveh uncovered Ashurbanipal's library of clay tablets, including the *Epic of Gilgamesh*.
10. Nahum and Jonah, the two books about Nineveh, both end with a question.
## đ§ Chapter Summary
> [!note] đą Still growing. This section is on its way.
## âď¸ Christ in This Chapter
Christ is the righteous Judge who will end all cruelty and deceit (3:1). Nineveh's wound was incurable (3:19), but Jesus bore our wounds so that we could be healed (1 Peter 2:24).
## đ Key Principles / đ Life Application
> [!note] đą Still growing. This section is on its way.
## đŹ Discussion Questions
1. Nineveh was called a city of bloodshed and lies (3:1). How does God view violence and deception?
2. God reminds Nineveh that mighty Thebes also fell (3:8-10). What can we learn from the fall of the proud?
3. Nahum ends with the nations clapping at Nineveh's fall because all had suffered its cruelty (3:19). How do our actions affect the way others remember us?
## âď¸ Key Verses to Remember
- đ verse 1: Woe to the city of bloodshed, full of lies and plunder.
- đ verse 8: Nineveh is no better than Thebes, which also fell.
- đ verse 19: Nineveh's wound is incurable, and all who hear of it clap their hands.
## đ Related Passages/Cross Reference
- đ [[1 Peter 02#Verse 24.|1 Peter 2:24]] - By His wounds we are healed.
- đ [[Revelation 18#Verse 02.|Revelation 18:2]] - Fallen is Babylon the great.
- đ [[Isaiah 14#Verse 24.|Isaiah 14:24-25]] - God's plan to break Assyria.
- đ [[Proverbs 16#Verse 18.|Proverbs 16:18]] - Pride goes before destruction.
- đ [[Jonah 04#Verse 11.|Jonah 4:11]] - God's compassion on Nineveh.
## đ Devotional Reflection
đ SOAP: [[Nahum 03 - SOAP|No Enemy is Too Big]]
## đ Internal Notes