Add parallel Print Page Options

Nineveh Will Suffer the Same Fate as Thebes

You are no more secure[a] than Thebes[b]
she was located on the banks of the Nile;
the waters surrounded her—
her[c] rampart[d] was the sea,
the water[e] was her wall.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Nahum 3:8 tn Heb “Are you better than Thebes?”
  2. Nahum 3:8 tn Heb “No-Amon.” The name is transliterated by NAB, NASB; many other English versions employ the equivalent “Thebes.”
  3. Nahum 3:8 tn The relative pronoun אֲשֶׁר (ʾasher) is functioning in a possessive sense: “whose” (Job 37:17; Ps 95:5; Isa 5:28; 49:23; Jer 31:32; see HALOT 98 s.v. 4).
  4. Nahum 3:8 tn The consonantal form חיל is vocalized in the MT as חֵיל (khel, “rampart”). The LXX translation ἡ ἀρξή (hē arxē, “strength”) reflects confusion between the relatively rare חֵיל and the more common חַיִל (khayil, “strength”); see HALOT 310-12.
  5. Nahum 3:8 tn Heb “from (the) sea.” The form should be emended to מַיִם (mayim, “water”). This is a figurative description of the Nile River: It functioned like a fortress wall for Thebes.