Nahum 3 · The Lantern

Judgment on Nineveh

Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departs not;

Let us mourn with Nahum, and say with him, "Woe to him that buildeth his house on high." Or rather let us mourn for them as Christ mourned for those of old. "Woe to you that are rich, for ye have received your consolation." Let us, I beseech you, not cease thus lamenting, and if it be not unseemly, let us even beat our breasts for the carelessness of our brethren.

(Chapter 3, verses 1 and following) Woe to the city of blood, full of deceit and torn apart. The plunder will not cease. The sound of the whip, the sound of the rattling wheel, the galloping horses and the blazing chariots, the ascending knight and the flashing sword, the gleaming spear and the multitude of the slain, and the weighty destruction.

Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and injustice. He has called it a city of blood; for those who had reigned in Nineveh were most ready for murder and exceedingly bloodthirsty; and those in it were otherwise warlike, and always eager to make their attacks untamable against whomever they might go.

The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.

The horseman lifts up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcasses; and there is no end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:

Because of the multitude of the prostitution of the wellfavoured prostitute, the mistress of witchcrafts, that sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her witchcrafts.

Look, I am against you, says the LORD of hosts; and I will discover your skirts upon your face, and I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame.

And I will cast abominable filth upon you, and make you vile, and will set you as a gazingstock.

And it shall happen, that all they that look upon you shall flee from you, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for you?

Are you better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?

Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were your helpers.

Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.

You also shall be drunken: you shall be hid, you also shall seek strength because of the enemy.

All your strong holds shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.

Look, your people in the midst of you are women: the gates of your land shall be set wide open to your enemies: the fire shall devour your bars.

Draw you waters for the siege, fortify your strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln.

There shall the fire devour you; the sword shall cut you off, it shall eat you up like the cankerworm: make yourself many as the cankerworm, make yourself many as the locusts.

You have multiplied your merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoils, and flies away.

Your crowned are as the locusts, and your captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun arises they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: your nobles shall dwell in the dust: your people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathers them.

There is no healing of your bruise; your wound is grievous: all that hear the report of you shall clap the hands over you: for upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?

Nahum3

Judgment on Nineveh