Nahum 3:1-6

Nahum 3:1 (KJB)

Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;

 

The “woe” is pronounced which means that total judgment and great calamities are coming.  Nineveh was the chief city of Assyria and it is where the king and the rulers along with the military rulers lived and planned the destruction of neighboring countries thus shedding much blood in the attacks and conquests.  The city was full of lies, that is, everyone lied to each other or to the courts and even in trade with other countries.  When they attacked a country, they stole everything they could from them and brought it back to Assyria.  They had a consistent policy of raping countries of their wealth and that policy never ceased as they continued to plunder whoever and wherever they could.

 

Nahum 3:2 (KJB)

The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.

 

Nahum now changes his prophecy from the crimes of Nineveh to its defeat.  The noise of a whip would be that of the chariot drivers that would come into Nineveh and the rattling of the wheels would be made by means of the fast moving of the horses pulling the chariots through the streets.  The pransing horses are those which move through the streets springing as of a high spirited horse.  The chariots of the Chaldeans will be so swift that it will look like the chariots are actually leaving the ground and flying through the air.

 

Nahum 3:3 (KJB)

The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:

 

The Chaldeans will come at the Assyrians with every weapon available their soldiers can carry and that would include the sword and the spear which has a glittering metal point ready to kill or wound any Assyrian soldier who tries to stop them.  The killing will be so much that it will seem like there is no end to the amount of corpses that will be piling up during and after the slaughter.  In fact, there will be so many bodies that people will actually be tripping over them making it almost impossible to be swift in trying to escape.  No one will know the actual number of the slain.

 

Nahum 3:4 (KJB)

Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.

 

God uses the word “because” letting us know that Nineveh deserved what she was now getting because of the way she has been.  The whoredoms could be the spiritual idolatry the people of Nineveh followed and multiplying idol worship by the thousands would constitute spiritual whoredoms.  It can also refer to the many sins beside idolatry that have come up before God including their evil behavior toward other nations.  The well-favored harlot is a description of the kingdom of Assyria referring to is strength and power which the Lord allowed them to obtain.  The mistress of witchcrafts might refer to actual occult activity rampant throughout pagan empires like Assyria.  It may also refer to its bewitching policies toward other nations.  They may have gone to them as friends in the early stages and then without warning they would plunder that nation.  To bewitch someone or a nation is to please them to such a high degree it removes all opposition and then they would attack and win.  Then when they would plunder the nations, they would then take the people of them, even families, and sell them as slaves to the people of Assyria or to the highest bidder.  They also seemed to use witchcraft to appease families thus removing any and all resistance.  This way they could gain the favor of wealthy and influential families which would quell any resistance.

 

Nahum 3:5 (KJB)

Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame.

 

The Lord once again states that he is against Assyria for all their sins which they have committed.  To discover their skirts upon their face is a euphemism which speaks about exposing their private parts in shame.  What is in view here is that the world is going to see their shame as they are defeated by the Chaldeans.  Assyria was once an indelible empire but they will brought down to nothing and they will be shamed in front of the entire world.  The nations and kingdoms which once feared Assyria will now see that the idea of invincibility is just a false concept.

 

Nahum 3:6 (KJB)

And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.

 

When a harlot is publicly disgraced, people will throw dung or anything filthy at them to shame them for their profession.  In the case of Nineveh, they will have all the glory stripped from them and all the beautiful buildings which were in Nineveh will become a wasteland of broken buildings and rubble.  They will be made a gazingstock.  A gazingstock is the object of someone’s stare or gaze.  Those nations that looked at Assyria as an invincible empire will now see them as a pile of defeated ruins after the Chaldeans come through and pillage them and destroy their cities.  As one gazes upon a tragic event, the people will gaze upon what used to be the mighty kingdom of Assyria.

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