Nahum 3

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¹Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; Her prey does not leave. ✦ ²The sound of the whip, The sound of the roar of the wheel, Galloping horses And bounding chariots! ✦ ³Horsemen charging, Swords flashing, spears gleaming, Many killed, a mass of corpses, And there is no end to the dead bodies— They stumble over the dead bodies! ✦ ⁴All because of the many sexual acts of the prostitute, The charming one, the mistress of sorceries, Who sells nations by her sexual acts, And families by her sorceries. ✦ ⁵“Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of armies; “And I will lift up your skirts over your face, And show the nations your nakedness, And the kingdoms your shame. ✦ ⁶“I will throw filth on you And declare you worthless, And set you up as a spectacle. ✦ ⁷“And it will come about that all who see you Will shrink from you and say, ‘Nineveh is devastated! Who will have sympathy for her?’ Where shall I seek comforters for you?” ✦ ⁸¶Are you better than No-amon, Which was situated by the canals of the Nile, With water surrounding her, Whose rampart was the sea, Whose wall consisted of the sea? ✦ ⁹Ethiopia was her might, Egypt too, without limits. Put and Lubim were among her helpers. ✦ ¹⁰Yet 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. ✦ ¹¹You too will become drunk, You will be hidden. You too will search for a refuge from the enemy. ✦ ¹²All your fortifications are fig trees with ripe fruit— When shaken, they fall into the eater’s mouth. ✦ ¹³Behold, your people are women in your midst! The gates of your land are opened wide to your enemies; Fire consumes your gate bars. ✦ ¹⁴Draw for yourself water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go into the clay and tread the mortar! Take hold of the brick mold! ✦ ¹⁵There fire will consume you, The sword will cut you down; It will consume you as the creeping locust consumes a crop. Multiply yourself like the creeping locust, Multiply yourself like the migratory locust. ✦ ¹⁶You have made your traders more numerous than the stars of heaven— The creeping locust sheds its skin and flies away. ✦ ¹⁷Your courtiers are like the migratory locust. Your officials are like a swarm of locusts Settling in the stone shelters on a cold day. The sun rises and they flee, And the place where they are is not known. ✦ ¹⁸Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria; Your officers are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains And there is no one to gather them. ✦ ¹⁹There is no relief for your collapse, Your wound is incurable. All who hear about you Will clap their hands over you, For upon whom has your evil not come continually? ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

Where this chapter connects

Nah 2 ·11 Jer 51 ·8 Rev 18 ·7 Jer 46 ·5 Isa 47 ·4 Ezek 30 ·3 Zeph 2 ·3 Nah 1 ·3

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 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.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.

Pastoral

SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — Nahum videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on Nahum 3YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — Nahum 3David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on NahumMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — Nahum 3Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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