Nahum 3
Easy-to-Read Version
Bad News for Nineveh
3 It will be very bad for that city of murderers.
Nineveh is a city full of lies.
It is filled with things taken from other countries.
It is filled with plenty of people that it hunted and killed.
2 You can hear the sounds of whips
and the noise of wheels.
You can hear horses galloping
and chariots bouncing along!
3 Soldiers on horses are attacking,
their swords are shining,
their spears are gleaming!
There are many dead people.
Dead bodies are piled up—too many bodies to count.
People are tripping over the dead bodies.
4 All this happened because of Nineveh.
Nineveh is like a prostitute who could never get enough.
She wanted more and more.
She sold herself to many nations,
and she used her magic to make them her slaves.
5 The Lord All-Powerful says,
“I am against you, Nineveh.
I will pull your dress[a] up over your face.
I will let the nations see your naked body.
The kingdoms will see your shame.
6 I will throw dirty things on you
and treat you in a hateful way.
People will look at you and laugh.
7 Everyone who sees you will be shocked.
They will say, ‘Nineveh is destroyed.
Who will cry for her?’
I know I cannot find anyone to comfort you, Nineveh.”
8 Nineveh, are you better than Thebes[b] on the Nile River? Thebes also had water all around her to protect herself from enemies. She used that water like a wall too. 9 Ethiopia and Egypt made Thebes strong. Libya and the Sudan supported her, 10 but Thebes was defeated. Her people were taken away as prisoners to a foreign country. Soldiers beat her small children to death at every street corner. They threw lots to see who got to keep the important people as slaves. They put chains on all the important men of Thebes.
11 So, Nineveh, you will also fall like a drunk. You will try to hide. You will look for a safe place away from the enemy. 12 But Nineveh, all your strong places will be like fig trees. When new figs become ripe, people come and shake the tree. The figs fall into their mouths. They eat them, and the figs are gone.
13 Nineveh, your people are all like women—and the enemy soldiers are ready to take them. The gates of your land are open wide for your enemies to come in. Fire has destroyed the wooden bars across the gates.
14 Get water and store it inside your city, because the enemy soldiers will surround your city. Make your defenses strong! Get clay to make more bricks and mix the mortar. Get the molds for making bricks. 15 You can do all these things, but the fire will still destroy you completely. And the sword will kill you. Your land will look like a swarm of grasshoppers came and ate everything.
Nineveh, you grew and grew. You became like a swarm of grasshoppers. You were like a swarm of locusts. 16 You have many traders who go places and buy things. They are as many as the stars in the sky. They are like locusts that come and eat until everything is gone and then leave. 17 And your government officials are also like locusts that settle on a stone wall on a cold day. But when the sun comes up, the rocks become warm, and the locusts all fly away. And no one knows where.
18 King of Assyria, your shepherds fell asleep. These powerful men are sleeping. And now your sheep have wandered away on the mountains. There is no one to bring them back. 19 Nineveh, you have been hurt badly, and nothing can heal your wound. Everyone who hears the news of your destruction claps their hands. They are all happy, because they all felt the pain you caused again and again.
Nahum 3
International Standard Version
The Coming Judgment of Nineveh
3 Woe to this city, contaminated with shed blood,
all full of lies and robberies—
it is[a] never without victims!
2 The crack of whips
and the clamor of wheels!
The galloping horses
and the bounding chariots!
3 The cavalry attacks—
the flashing sword
and the glittering spear!
Many are the slain—
so many casualties!—
No end to bodies,
and the soldiers[b] trip over the corpses.
4 Innumerable are the harlotries of this well-favored whore,
this mistress of witchcraft,
who enslaves nations through her fornication
and families through her sorcery.
God’s Decree against Nineveh
5 “Look, I am against you,” declares the Lord of the Heavenly Armies,
“so I will pull up your dress over your face.
I will show your nakedness to the nations,
and your disgrace to the kingdoms.
6 I will hurl abominable filth upon you,
making you look foolish,
and making an example of you.
7 It will be that everyone who looks at you will run away, saying,
‘Nineveh has been violently overthrown!
Who will mourn for her?
Where will I find anyone to comfort you?’”
Thebes: an Example of God’s Justice
8 “Are you any better than Thebes,[c]
which sits by the upper Nile, surrounded by water?
The sea was her defense,
the waters her wall of protection.[d]
9 Sudan[e] was her source of strength, along with Egypt—
there were no limits.
Put and the Libyans were her allies.
10 But she, too, was exiled—
she went into captivity!
Her young children were dashed to pieces
at every crossroad of their streets,
and her famous citizens were sold by lottery,
while all of her aristocrats were put in chains.
11 You will also become drunk.
You will disappear,
trying to hide from your enemies.
12 All your defenses are like fig trees with ripe early fruit—
when shaken, it falls right into the devourer’s mouth.
13 Look at your people—[f]
they are women!
Your borders stand wide open to your enemies,
while fire consumes the bars of your gates.”
The Futility of Avoiding God’s Judgment
14 “Draw water, because a siege is coming![g]
Strengthen your fortresses!
Make the clay good and strong!
Mix the mortar!
Go get your brick molds![h]
15 In that place fire will consume you,
the sword will cut you down,
consuming you as locusts do.
Multiply yourself like locusts,
increase like swarming grasshoppers.
16 You added to your inventory of businessmen—
they number more than the stars of heaven.
The creeping locust sheds its skin and flies away.
17 Your imperial guards are like the swarming grasshopper;
your marshals are like hordes of grasshoppers,
settling in the stone walls on a chilly day.
The sun rises, and they flee away;
no one knows where they went.
18 Hey king of Assyria! Your shepherds are asleep
and your nobles are lying down!
Your people lie scattered on the mountains,
and there is no one to gather them together.
19 There is no healing for your injury—
your wound is fatal.
Everyone who hears about you will applaud,
because who hasn’t escaped your endless evil?”
Footnotes
- Nahum 3:1 The Heb. lacks it is
- Nahum 3:3 Lit. They
- Nahum 3:8 Lit. than No-Amon; i.e. Thebes, capital of southern Egypt (cf. Jer 46.25)
- Nahum 3:8 The Heb. lacks of protection
- Nahum 3:9 Lit. Cush
- Nahum 3:13 I.e. Nineveh’s army
- Nahum 3:14 The Heb. lacks coming
- Nahum 3:14 I.e. this verse appears to be affirming the uselessness of constructing a defense against God’s coming judgment.
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International
Copyright © 1995-2014 by ISV Foundation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. Used by permission of Davidson Press, LLC.
