Get ready for the siege! Store up water! Strengthen the defenses! Go into the pits to trample clay, and pack it into molds, making bricks to repair the walls.
Parallel translations
- WEB Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong.
- KJV Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln.
- BSB Draw your water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses. Work the clay and tread the mortar; repair the brick kiln!
- NKJV Draw your water for the siege! Fortify your strongholds! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Make strong the brick kiln!
- NASB Draw for yourself water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Take hold of the brick mold!
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
Nineveh is sarcastically urged to draw water, strengthen defenses, and make bricks for the siege. Such frantic preparations will prove useless.
Overview
The commands to store water and reinforce the walls mock the city's last desperate efforts to survive. No amount of siege preparation can avert the destruction God has decreed. The irony underscores the futility of resisting the Lord's judgment by human means.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 2 Chr 32:3–4he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the springs which were outside of the city, and they helped him.
- Nah 2:1He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your power mightily!
- Jer 46:3–4“Prepare the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle!
- Isa 8:9Make an uproar, you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered! Dress for battle, and be shattered!
- Isa 22:9–11You saw the breaches of David’s city, that they were many; and you gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
- Jer 46:9Go up, you horses; and rage, you chariots! Let the mighty men go out: Cush and Put, who handle the shield; and the Ludim, who handle and bend the bow.
- Joel 3:9–11Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up.
- 2 Chr 32:11Doesn’t Hezekiah persuade you, to give you over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, ‘Yahweh our God will deliver us out of the hand of the king of Assyria?’
- Isa 37:25I have dug and drunk water, and with the sole of my feet I will dry up all the rivers of Egypt.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 3:14 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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