Nahum 3

Nahum 3
1-19 Ruin Imminent and Inevitable

1-3 Nineveh will be a city of bloodshed and plunder - galloping horses, flashing swords, piles of dead people.
4-7 Because of your debauchery, I am against you and will expose your wickedness and make you a spectacle; there will be no one to comfort you.
8-10 You're no better than Thebes (lit. No-amon, but thought to refer to Thebes, in central Egypt). With all her strength and support from other nations, she still went into captivity, her infants destroyed, her dignitaries jailed.
11-13 You'll be in a stupor, hiding from the enemy, with your fortresses turned weak and your troops fighting like women, your gates wide open.
14-15 Though you draw water for the siege and take hold of your brick walls, you will still be devoured like locusts.
16-17 Though your merchants and guards and scribes are as numerous as grasshoppers, they will desert you – they will just fly away.
18-19 Your shepherds and nobles are asleep, your people are scattered, your wound is mortal. And all who hear of your demise will applaud – for no one has been able to escape "your endless cruelty." A bully receives no sympathy in his punishment.

Note: God through Nahum seems to go through a list of the defenses they might think they have – their city fortresses, their strong gates, their trade with other nations, their guards and their scribes – and tells them they are of no use against him.

Nahum 1-2

Nahum 1
1 "An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh." This takes place 100 years or more after the account of Jonah, when Nineveh repented, a sign in itself that Nineveh has reverted to its evil ways.

Of Nahum's origin, Matthew Henry writes,

All the account we have of the prophet himself is that he was an Elkoshite, of the town called Elkes, or Elcos, which, Jerome says, was in Galilee. Some observe that the scripture ordinarily says little of the prophets themselves, that our faith might not stand upon their authority, but upon that of the blessed Spirit by whom their prophecies were indited.

2-11 The Consuming Wrath of God

2-3 The LORD is jealous and avenging, slow to anger but great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty. Wow! Nothing like getting right to the message, with no buttering up first. There must be nothing good to say to Nineveh.
3-5 The world is God's weapon: whirlwind and storm, clouds, a dry sea and rivers, earthquakes.
6 None can stand against his indignation, the fire or destruction of his wrath.
7-8 "The LORD is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him." God's invincible power and strength are good things for those who trust in him.
9-11 There is no use in plotting against God; he'll finish off his enemies the first time, entangling, disabling, and consuming them.

12-15 Good News for Judah

12-13 Though your enemies use all their strength, they will pass away; my affliction of you will pass, and I will break your enemy's yoke of bondage.
14 To Nineveh: I will destroy your name and your images and be the cause of your death.
15 To Judah: "On the mountains the feet of one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace!" Quoted in Romans 10:15, referring to those who preach the good news of Christ.

Nahum 2
1-13 Destruction of the Wicked City

1-2 Get ready, for though it has been ravaged, the LORD is restoring the majesty of Israel.
3-5 With shields of red, clothes of crimson, flashing, racing chariots that appear like lightning, the LORD calls his officers and they rush to your [city] wall.
6-9 The flood gates open, the palace trembles, women will be taken captive, and no one will be able to stop the flood of conquest or the plunder of your treasures.
10-12 "Devastation, desolation, and destruction!" Faces grow pale, the lions have been destroyed in their own protective den, which is filled with their own prey.
13 "I am against you, says the LORD of hosts," and will burn your chariots, devour your young lions, cut off your prey, and will make sure the voice of your messengers will be heard no more.