Yet she was carried away, She went into captivity; Her young children also were dashed to pieces At the head of every street; They cast lots for her honorable men, And all her great men were bound in chains.
Parallel translations
- WEB Yet 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.
- KJV Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
- BSB Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her dignitaries, and all her nobles were bound in chains.
- NASB Yet she became an exile, She went into captivity; Also her small children were smashed to pieces At the head of every street; They cast lots for her honorable men, And all her great men were bound with shackles.
- NLT Yet Thebes fell, and her people were led away as captives. Her babies were dashed to death against the stones of the streets. Soldiers threw dice to get Egyptian officers as servants. All their leaders were bound in chains.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Thebes was nonetheless taken into captivity, its children dashed in the streets and its leaders bound in chains. Its fall was total and brutal.
Overview
The horrors described, including the slaughter of children and the enslavement of nobles, reflect the savagery of ancient conquest, which Assyria itself had inflicted. By recalling these atrocities, Nahum signals that Nineveh will reap the very terror it sowed. The verse underscores the biblical principle that those who deal in cruelty will themselves face just recompense.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Isa 20:4so the king of Assyria will lead away the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
- Hos 13:16Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.”
- Obad 1:11In the day that you stood on the other side, in the day that strangers carried away his substance, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots for Jerusalem, even you were like one of them.
- Joel 3:3and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.
- Lam 2:19Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.
- Isa 13:16Their infants also will be dashed in pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be ransacked, and their wives raped.
- Isa 13:6Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
- Ps 137:8Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who rewards you, as you have served us.
- Ps 33:16–17There is no king saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
- Lam 4:1How the gold has become dim! The most pure gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
- Amos 1:13Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border.
- 2 Kgs 8:12Hazael said, “Why do you weep, my lord?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and you will kill their young men with the sword, and will dash their little ones in pieces, and rip up their pregnant women.”
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Christ at the center
The certain judgment on Nineveh and the comfort that 'the LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble' point to Christ, who is both the refuge of his people and the judge of their enemies.
How Nahum 3:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.