You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy.
Parallel translations
- WEB You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy.
- KJV Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy.
- NKJV You also will be drunk; You will be hidden; You also will seek refuge from the enemy.
- NASB You too will become drunk, You will be hidden. You too will search for a refuge from the enemy.
- NLT And you, Nineveh, will also stagger like a drunkard. You will hide for fear of the attacking enemy.
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
Like Thebes, Nineveh too will be made drunk, will hide in fear, and will seek refuge from the enemy. The proud city will be reduced to desperate weakness.
Overview
Being 'drunken' here pictures the staggering, helpless stupor of those overwhelmed by God's judgment. Nineveh, which made others cower, will itself grope for a stronghold in terror. The reversal shows that the cup of wrath comes round to those who once made others drink it.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 19
- Isa 2:10Go into the rocks and hide in the dust from the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty.
- Luke 23:30At that time ‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’
- Isa 49:26I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
- Hos 10:8The high places of Aven will be destroyed—it is the sin of Israel; thorns and thistles will overgrow their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
- Jer 4:5Announce in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: “Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land. Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves and let us flee to the fortified cities.’
- Isa 2:19Men will flee to caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth.
- Ps 75:8For a cup is in the hand of the LORD, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours from His cup, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to the dregs.
- Rev 6:15–17Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.
- Nah 1:10For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.
- Isa 63:6I trampled the nations in My anger; in My wrath I made them drunk and poured out their blood on the ground.”
- Jer 8:14Why are we just sitting here? Gather together, let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
- 1 Sam 14:11So the two of them showed themselves to the outpost of the Philistines, who exclaimed, “Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes in which they were hiding!”
- 1 Sam 13:6Seeing that they were in danger because their troops were hard-pressed, the men of Israel hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in cellars and cisterns.
- Nah 2:1One who scatters advances against you, O Nineveh. Guard the fortress! Watch the road! Brace yourselves! Summon all your strength!
- Jer 25:15–27This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it.
- Isa 29:9Stop and be astonished; blind yourselves and be sightless; be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not from strong drink.
- Amos 9:3Though they hide themselves atop Carmel, there I will track them and seize them; and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them.
- Mic 7:17They will lick the dust like a snake, like reptiles slithering on the ground. They will crawl from their holes in the presence of the LORD our God; they will tremble in fear of You.
- Jer 51:57I will make her princes and wise men drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and not wake up,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD of Hosts.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 3:11 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
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