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Nahum 3

Nahum declares that Nineveh’s violence and exploitation have brought God’s judgment, which neither wealth nor military strength can withstand.

Nahum addresses Nineveh, Assyria’s capital, as a city built on bloodshed, lies, and plunder. YHWH declares his opposition to her, and the prophet describes battle, public disgrace, and abandonment. Nineveh is compared with No-Amon, whose waters and allies failed to prevent captivity. Commands to prepare for siege lead into images of defenses collapsing and officials fleeing. The chapter ends by addressing Assyria’s king: his people are scattered, and those who suffered his cruelty applaud his fall.

injustice and angersermon or Bible study notes
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1Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery—no end to the prey.
2The noise of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots,
3the horseman charging, and the flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies. They stumble on their bodies
4because of the multitude of the prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcraft.
5“Behold, I am against you,” says the LORD of Armies, “and I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.
6I will throw abominable filth on you and make you vile, and will make you a spectacle.
7It will happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say, ‘Nineveh is laid waste! Who will mourn for her?’ Where will I seek comforters for you?”
8Are you better than No-Amon, who was situated among the rivers, who had the waters around her, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea?
9Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength. Put and Libya were her helpers.
10Yet was she carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
11You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy.
12All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs. If they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.
13Behold, your troops among you are women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your bars.
14Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong.
15There the fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the grasshopper. Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the locust.
16You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips and flees away.
17Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
18Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.
19There is no healing your wound, for your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you clap their hands over you, for who hasn’t felt your endless cruelty?
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Nahum 3:5YHWH’s declared opposition makes Nineveh’s coming disgrace an act of divine judgment against her exploitation of nations.
Nahum 3:10No-Amon’s captivity and slaughter expose the limits of the natural defenses and alliances on which Nineveh also depends.
Nahum 3:4The prostitution and witchcraft imagery portrays Nineveh’s alluring influence as a means of selling nations and families into bondage.
Where this chapter reaches

Zephaniah also announces Nineveh’s desolation, sharing Nahum’s picture of Assyrian power brought down under God’s judgment. Ezekiel and Revelation share imagery of prostitution and public disgrace in judgments against cities; Revelation also depicts merchants whose wealth is bound to a condemned city.

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After reading the whole chapter

Which image of Nineveh’s failed defenses most challenges your sense of what makes power secure?

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How does the closing question about Assyria’s cruelty shape your response to the chapter’s severe judgment?

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Questions people ask about Nahum 3

Why does God judge Nineveh in Nahum 3?

Nineveh is charged with bloodshed, lies, robbery, and exploitation of nations and families. The closing verse describes its cruelty as something everyone has felt. YHWH declares himself against the city, and the chapter presents its military collapse and disgrace as judgment for that record of violence.

What does the prostitute represent in Nahum 3?

The prostitute represents Nineveh, portrayed as alluring and skilled in witchcraft. The image describes a city whose influence entraps nations and families. The following verses turn that allure into exposure and disgrace. This is prophetic imagery about the city’s exploitation; the passage does not identify an individual woman.

What is No-Amon in Nahum 3?

No-Amon is Thebes, an Egyptian city. Nahum recalls its watery defenses and strong allies, then describes its captivity, the killing of its children, and the enslavement of its leaders. Its fall supplies a warning to Nineveh: impressive defenses and outside support had already failed another great city.

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Nahum · 3 chapters
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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).