Nahum 3
The Message
Let the Nations Get Their Fill of the Ugly Truth
3 1-4 Doom to Murder City—
full of lies, bursting with loot, addicted to violence!
Horns blaring, wheels clattering,
horses rearing, chariots lurching,
Horsemen galloping,
brandishing swords and spears,
Dead bodies rotting in the street,
corpses stacked like cordwood,
Bodies in every gutter and alley,
clogging every intersection!
And whores! Whores without end!
Whore City,
Fatally seductive, you’re the Witch of Seduction,
luring nations to their ruin with your evil spells.
* * *
5-7 “I’m your enemy, Whore Nineveh—
I, God-of-the-Angel-Armies!
I’ll strip you of your seductive silk robes
and expose you on the world stage.
I’ll let the nations get their fill of the ugly truth
of who you really are and have been all along.
I’ll pelt you with dog dung
and place you on a pedestal: ‘Slut on Exhibit.’
Everyone who sees you will gag and say,
‘Nineveh’s a pigsty:
What on earth did we ever see in her?
Who would give her a second look? Ugh!’”
Past the Point of No Return
8-13 Do you think you’re superior to Egyptian Thebes,
proudly invincible on the River Nile,
Protected by the great River,
walled in by the River, secure?
Ethiopia stood guard to the south,
Egypt to the north.
Put and Libya, strong friends,
were ready to step in and help.
But you know what happened to her:
The whole city was marched off to a refugee camp,
Her babies smashed to death
in public view on the streets,
Her prize leaders auctioned off,
her celebrities put in chain gangs.
Expect the same treatment, Nineveh.
You’ll soon be staggering like a bunch of drunks,
Wondering what hit you,
looking for a place to sleep it off.
All your forts are like peach trees,
the lush peaches ripe, ready for the picking.
One shake of the tree and they fall
straight into hungry mouths.
Face it: Your warriors are wimps.
You’re sitting ducks.
Your borders are gaping doors, inviting
your enemies in. And who’s to stop them?
* * *
14-15 Store up water for the siege.
Shore up your defenses.
Get down to basics: Work the clay
and make bricks.
Sorry. Too late.
Enemy fire will burn you up.
Swords will cut you to pieces.
You’ll be chewed up as if by locusts.
* * *
15-17 Yes, as if by locusts—a fitting fate,
for you yourselves are a locust plague.
You’ve multiplied shops and shopkeepers—
more buyers and sellers than stars in the sky!
A plague of locusts, cleaning out the neighborhood
and then flying off.
Your bureaucrats are locusts,
your brokers and bankers are locusts.
Early on, they’re all at your service,
full of smiles and promises,
But later when you return with questions or complaints,
you’ll find they’ve flown off and are nowhere to be found.
18-19 King of Assyria! Your shepherd-leaders,
in charge of caring for your people,
Are busy doing everything else but.
They’re not doing their job,
And your people are scattered and lost.
There’s no one to look after them.
You’re past the point of no return.
Your wound is fatal.
When the story of your fate gets out,
the whole world will applaud and cry “Encore!”
Your cruel evil has seeped
into every nook and cranny of the world.
Everyone has felt it and suffered.
Nahum 3
Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
Ruin Imminent and Inevitable
3 Woe to the bloody city,
all full of lies and booty—
no end to the plunder!
2 The crack of whip, and rumble of wheel,
galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3 Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and glittering spear,
hosts of slain,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!
4 And all for the countless harlotries of the harlot,
graceful and of deadly charms,
who betrays nations with her harlotries,
and peoples with her charms.
5 Behold, I am against you,
says the Lord of hosts,
and will lift up your skirts over your face;
and I will let nations look on your nakedness
and kingdoms on your shame.
6 I will throw filth at you
and treat you with contempt,
and make you a gazingstock.
7 And all who look on you will shrink from you and say,
Wasted is Nin′eveh; who will bemoan her?
whence shall I seek comforters for her?[a]
8 Are you better than Thebes[b]
that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
and water her wall?
9 Ethiopia was her strength,
Egypt too, and that without limit;
Put and the Libyans were her[c] helpers.
10 Yet she was carried away,
she went into captivity;
her little ones were dashed in pieces
at the head of every street;
for her honored men lots were cast,
and all her great men were bound in chains.
11 You also will be drunken,
you will be dazed;
you will seek
a refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are like fig trees
with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
13 Behold, your troops
are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
are wide open to your foes;
fire has devoured your bars.
14 Draw water for the siege,
strengthen your forts;
go into the clay,
tread the mortar,
take hold of the brick mold!
15 There will the fire devour you,
the sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust,
multiply like the grasshopper!
16 You increased your merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
17 Your princes are like grasshoppers,
your scribes[d] like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences
in a day of cold—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they are.
18 Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your nobles slumber.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with none to gather them.
19 There is no assuaging your hurt,
your wound is grievous.
All who hear the news of you
clap their hands over you.
For upon whom has not come
your unceasing evil?
Footnotes
- Nahum 3:7 Gk: Heb you
- Nahum 3:8 Heb No-amon
- Nahum 3:9 Gk: Heb your
- Nahum 3:17 Or marshals
Nahum 3
Nouvelle Edition de Genève – NEG1979
Cause de la destruction de Ninive
3 Malheur à la ville sanguinaire,
Pleine de mensonge, pleine de violence,
Et qui ne cesse de se livrer à la rapine!…
2 On entend le bruit du fouet,
Le bruit des roues,
Le galop des chevaux,
Le roulement des chars.
3 Les cavaliers s’élancent, l’épée étincelle, la lance brille…
Une multitude de blessés!… une foule de cadavres!…
Des morts innombrables!…
On tombe sur les morts!…
4 C’est à cause des nombreuses prostitutions de la prostituée,
Pleine d’attraits, habile enchanteresse,
Qui vendait les nations par ses prostitutions
Et les peuples par ses enchantements.
5 Voici, j’en veux à toi, dit l’Eternel des armées,
Je relèverai tes pans jusque sur ton visage,
Je montrerai ta nudité aux nations,
Et ta honte aux royaumes.
6 Je jetterai sur toi des impuretés, je t’avilirai,
Et je te donnerai en spectacle.
7 Tous ceux qui te verront fuiront loin de toi,
Et l’on dira: Ninive est détruite!
Qui la plaindra?
Où te chercherai-je des consolateurs?
8 Es-tu meilleure que No-Amon[a],
Qui était assise au milieu des fleuves,
Entourée par les eaux,
Ayant la mer pour remparts,
La mer pour murailles?
9 L’Ethiopie et les Egyptiens innombrables faisaient sa force,
Puth et les Libyens étaient ses auxiliaires[b].
10 Et cependant elle est partie pour l’exil, elle s’en est allée captive;
Ses enfants ont été écrasés au coin de toutes les rues;
On a jeté le sort sur ses nobles,
Et tous ses grands ont été chargés de chaînes.
11 Toi aussi, tu seras enivrée, tu te cacheras;
Toi aussi, tu chercheras un refuge contre l’ennemi.
12 Toutes tes forteresses
Sont des figuiers avec des figues mûres;
Quand on les secoue,
Elles tombent dans la bouche de qui veut les manger.
13 Voici, ton peuple, ce sont des femmes au milieu de toi;
Les portes de ton pays s’ouvrent à tes ennemis;
Le feu consume tes verrous.
14 Puise de l’eau pour le siège!
Répare tes forteresses!
Entre dans la boue, foule l’argile!
Rétablis le four à briques!
15 Là, le feu te dévorera,
L’épée t’exterminera,
Te dévorera comme des sauterelles.
Entasse-toi comme les sauterelles!
Entasse-toi comme les sauterelles!
16 Tes marchands, plus nombreux
Que les étoiles du ciel,
Sont comme la sauterelle qui ouvre les ailes et s’envole.
17 Tes princes sont comme les sauterelles,
Tes chefs comme une multitude de sauterelles,
Qui se posent sur les haies au temps de la froidure;
Le soleil paraît, elles s’envolent,
Et l’on ne reconnaît plus le lieu où elles étaient.
18 Tes bergers sommeillent, roi d’Assyrie,
Tes vaillants hommes reposent;
Ton peuple est dispersé sur les montagnes,
Et nul ne le rassemble.
19 Il n’y a point de remède à ta blessure,
Ta plaie est mortelle.
Tous ceux qui entendront parler de toi
Battront des mains sur toi;
Car quel est celui que ta méchanceté n’a pas atteint?
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Nouvelle Edition de Genève Copyright © 1979 by Société Biblique de Genève