Nah 3 | TNotes | STEP | 3:1 city of murder: The Assyrians’ graphic cruelty is well documented. Their practices included cutting off external body parts—such as noses, ears, hands, and feet—and execution by impalement on stakes. They heaped up severed heads before the gates of besieged cities. The eyes of victims might also be put out and their skin stripped from their bodies while they were still alive.

3:1 ^a city of murder: The Assyrians’ graphic cruelty is well documented. Their practices included cutting off external body parts—such as noses, ears, hands, and feet—and execution by impalement on stakes. They heaped up severed heads before the gates of besieged cities. The eyes of victims might also be put out and their skin stripped from their bodies while they were still alive.
Summary for Nah 3:2-3: 3:2-3 ^b These short, staccato phrases dramatize the effects of seeing and hearing the battle.

• Assyrian chariots and charioteers were feared far and wide.
3:4 ^c mistress of deadly charms: The Assyrians charmed other nations with wealth and promises of safety and prosperity but then victimized them through military might and economic exploitation. Therefore, their punishment was a just recompense for their deeds (see Prov 24:12 ^d; Joel 3:4-8 ^e; Rev 18:6 ^f; 20:12 ^g).
3:5 ^h Twice God tells Nineveh, I am your enemy (also 2:13 ⁱ). Nineveh’s judgment stands as a historical reminder that the Lord abhors sin and will deal with people and nations according to their deeds (Pss 9:7-8 ^j; 62:12 ^k; Jer 46:28 ^l; Acts 17:31 ^m). One day, God’s justice will fall worldwide on those who have rebelled against him (Rev 17–19 ⁿ).
3:8 ^o Thebes, the historic capital of Egypt, was situated on both sides of the Nile in Upper Egypt. It achieved its greatest fame as the political, religious, and cultural center of Egypt’s great New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC). Though no longer Egypt’s capital in the 600s BC, the city was still a thriving metropolis.
Summary for Nah 3:9-10: 3:9-10 ^p Thebes fell to the Assyrians under King Ashurbanipal in 663 BC. Before Ashurbanipal’s victory, Thebes had seemed to have unconquerable defenses, as well as the help of all Egypt and its allies: Ethiopia, Put (perhaps the fabled land of Punt, located near what is now coastal Somalia), and Libya. None of these, however, had effectively protected Thebes.

• babies were dashed to death: Ancient conquerors had the heinous practice of exterminating the infants of their enemies in this way (2 Kgs 8:12 ^q; Ps 137:9 ^r; Isa 13:16 ^s, 18 ^t).

• Soldiers threw dice for the spoils of war, while the leaders of the conquered people were bound in chains (see 2 Kgs 25:7 ^u; Jer 40:1 ^v, 4 ^w; Joel 3:3 ^x; Obad 1:11 ^y).
3:12 ^z ripe figs: Cp. Amos 8:1-2 ^aa; Rev 6:13 ^ab.
3:14 ^ac Get ready ... Strengthen: Nahum used sarcasm to stress that no amount of preparation would make the Assyrians able to withstand God’s wrath (note also the sarcastic tone of 2:11-13 ^ad).
3:15 ^ae The Old Testament often uses locusts as a metaphor for armies (see Joel 2:1-11 ^af).
3:16 ^ag Assyrian merchants had spread throughout the Near East like locusts, filling Nineveh with untold wealth. But just as locusts desire only to satisfy their insatiable appetites and then fly off, the merchants would take their goods and go in the time of Nineveh’s distress, leaving a needy populace behind.
3:18 ^ah shepherds: With the leaders gone, Nineveh’s people would be scattered like sheep.

• lie dead (literally sleep; see John 11:11-14 ^ai): Assyria’s leaders, asleep during Nineveh’s crisis, would sleep in death. By contrast, Israel’s Shepherd does not slumber (Ps 121:3 ^aj), and he will gather Israel’s lost sheep (Jer 23:3 ^ak; Ezek 36:35 ^al).
3:19 ^am Nineveh deserved destruction rather than healing. Although God had been patient with Nineveh in Jonah’s day (Jon 3:10 ^an), the Assyrians had returned to cruelty and would reap the harvest of their own evil (see Prov 11:16-19 ^ao; Isa 66:5-6 ^ap; Hos 8:7 ^aq). Those who had suffered under Assyria’s cruelty would welcome this message with joy.