3
How terrible it will be for Nineveh! It is a city of murderers!
It is full of liars!
It is filled with stolen goods!
The killing never stops!
2 Whips crack!
Wheels clack!
Horses charge!
Chariots rumble!
3 Horsemen attack!
Swords flash!
Spears gleam!
Many people die.
Dead bodies pile up.
They can't even be counted.
People trip over them.
4 All of that was caused by the evil desires
of the prostitute Nineveh.
That woman who practised evil magic
was very beautiful.
She used her sinful charms
to make slaves out of the nations.
She worshipped evil powers
in order to trap others.
5 ‘Nineveh, I am against you,’
announces the Lord who rules over all.
‘I will pull your skirts up over your face.
I will show the nations your naked body.
Kingdoms will make fun of your shame.
6 I will throw garbage at you.
I will look down on you.
I will make an example out of you.
7 All those who see you will run away from you.
They will say, “Nineveh is destroyed.
Who will mourn over it?”
Where can I find someone
to comfort your people?’
8 Nineveh, are you better than Thebes
on the River Nile?
There was water all around that city.
The river helped to keep it safe.
The waters were like a wall around it.
9 Cush and Egypt gave it all the strength it needed.
Put and Libya also helped it.
10 But Thebes was captured anyway.
Its people were taken away as prisoners.
Its babies were smashed to pieces
at every street corner.
The Assyrian soldiers cast lots
for all its nobles.
They put them in chains
and made slaves out of them.
11 People of Nineveh, you too will get drunk.
You will try to hide from your enemies.
You will look for a place of safety.
12 All your forts are like fig-trees
that have their first ripe fruit on them.
When the trees are shaken,
the figs fall into the mouths
of those who eat them.
13 Look at your troops.
All of them are weak.
The gates of your forts
are wide open to your enemies.
Fire has destroyed the bars that lock your gates.
14 Prepare for the attack by storing up water!
Make your walls as strong as you can!
Make some bricks out of clay!
Mix the mud to hold them together!
Use them to repair the walls!
15 In spite of all your hard work,
fire will burn you up inside your city.
Your enemies will cut you down with their swords.
They will destroy you
just as a swarm of locusts eats up crops.
Multiply like grasshoppers!
Increase your numbers like locusts!
16 You have more traders
than the number of stars in the sky.
But like locusts they strip the land.
Then they fly away.
17 Your guards are like grasshoppers.
Your officials are like swarms of locusts.
They settle in the walls on a cold day.
But when the sun appears, they fly away.
And no one knows where they go.
18 King of Assyria, your leaders are asleep.
Your nobles lie down to rest.
Your people are scattered on the mountains.
No one is left to gather them together.
19 Nothing can heal your wounds.
You will die of them.
All those who hear the news about you clap their hands.
That's because you have fallen from power.
Is there anyone who has not suffered
because of how badly you treated them?
1:9–3:19 Nahum spoke messages of judgement against Nineveh and Assyria. The story about Jonah also included a message of judgement against Nineveh. That was many years before Nahum's time. At that time Jonah spoke God's message to the people and leaders of Nineveh. The Ninevites listened and changed their ways. They stopped doing evil things. God had mercy on them and didn't bring the judgement he had warned them about. But during Nahum's time the people of Nineveh and Assyria were once again doing evil. The message that Nahum brought was different from Jonah's message. It wasn't only a warning to the city of Nineveh. It was an order from God about the entire nation of Assyria. The Assyrian government would have no more power. God had used the Assyrian government and armies as his tools to bring judgement. They brought his judgement against the northern kingdom by taking complete control of it. They brought his judgement against the southern kingdom by causing much harm. God didn't allow Assyria to take complete control of the southern kingdom. But the southern kingdom was forced to support the Assyrian government with taxes. The story about this is recorded in 2 Kings chapters 18 and 19. Yet the Assyrians didn't recognise that they had success because God gave it to them. They worshipped false gods and made evil plans against the Lord. They told lies, stole, murdered and practiced magic. They traded and did business in ways that ruined people groups and the land. These ways of living were completely against the way God wants people to live. Because of this God would no longer use the Assyrians as his tool. The king, leaders, army and traders would be killed. Nahum spoke his messages about Assyria to the people of the southern kingdom. They were only one of the people groups that suffered because of Assyria. When God stopped the evil actions of the Assyrian government, it was good news. It was good news for people that the Assyrian government treated badly. Their suffering was over and they could have peace for a period of time.