Context at a Glance
Author:Traditional Attribution
Topic:nahum Chapter 3 Study
This chapter provides a foundational look at the theological themes of nahum, analyzed across multiple historic translations for maximum scholarly depth.
Nahum 3
New Revised Standard Version
1Ah! City of bloodshed, utterly deceitful, full of booty — no end to the plunder!
2The crack of whip and rumble of wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear, piles of dead, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end — they stumble over the bodies! A series of taunts
4Because of the countless debaucheries of the prostitute, gracefully alluring, mistress of sorcery, who enslaves nations through her debaucheries, and peoples through her sorcery,
5I 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.
6I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt, and make you a spectacle.
7Then all who see you will shrink from you and say, "Nineveh is devastated; who will bemoan her?" Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, water her wall?
9Ethiopia was her strength, Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers.
10Yet she became an exile, she went into captivity; even her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; lots were cast for her nobles, all her dignitaries were bound in fetters.
11You also will be drunken, you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs — if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.
13Look at your troops: they are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your foes; fire has devoured the bars of your gates.
14Draw water for the siege, strengthen your forts; trample the clay, tread the mortar, take hold of the brick mold!
15There the fire will devour you, the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust, multiply like the grasshopper!
16You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust sheds its skin and flies away.
17Your guards are like grasshoppers, your scribes like swarms of locusts settling on the fences on a cold day — when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they have gone.
18Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.
19There is no assuaging your hurt, your wound is mortal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For who has ever escaped your endless cruelty? HABAKKUK
1882HABAKKUK Introduction Habakkuk, eighth in order among the twelve Minor Prophets, can be dated to the late seventh century BCE on the basis of the reference to the Chaldeans (1.6), whose domination of the Near East began around
612BCE. Such a date makes the book roughly contemporaneous with its predecessor, Nahum, and successor, Zephaniah. Although a Habakkuk legend appears in one of the additions to Daniel found in the Apocrypha (Bel 33-39), nothing is known about the life of the prophet, not even his father's name or his hometown. The book reflects the struggles of the Judahite community in the time between the death of King Josiah in
609BCE and the first deportation of exiles to Babylon in
597BCE (see
2Kings 23.34-24.27). At least three distinct literary forms can be recognized in Habakkuk. The section 1.2-2.4 is constructed as a dialogue between the prophet and God; the next section (2.5-20), consisting of five woes, is cast in classical prophetic style; and ch
3is a lengthy poem, similar in structure to the Psalms. Despite their varied texture, the sections build on each other. In the opening dialogue, the prophet first laments the injustice of his society (1.2-4). The divine response is that the Chaldeans will serve as the instrument of judgment (1.5-11). The prophet questions the justice of this: "the wicked swallow those more righteous than they" (1.13). The Lord answers by urging the prophet to wait, faithfully, for an appointed time; this injustice will also be addressed (2.2-4). The next section (2.5-20) is cast as the taunts addressed to Babylon by the very nations it had oppressed, once the cycle of divine judgment runs its full course ("The cup in the LORD's right hand will come around to you," 2.16). The final section, the song of Habakkuk (3.2-15), commemorates ancient triumphs of this God who comes in judgment. HABAKKUK
1883This psalm serves as the basis of the prophet's resilient hope in the face of calamity and deprivation (3.17-19) and also can be seen as a prayer (3.1) to arouse God to action (3.2). Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah, who also contended that an invading foreign power would serve as the divine instrument of judgment against Judah (cf. Hab 1.6-11 with Jer 4.13; 5.15-17; 6.22-23), and furthermore that, in time, Babylon itself would come under divine judgment (Jer 50-51). At the same time, Habakkuk articulates on behalf of his community their searching question: Is this fair? To this perennial question the prophet receives an answer that is eternally valid: God is still sovereign, and in God's own way and at the proper time will deal with the wicked. In the meantime — in fact, at all times — the righteous shall live by their faith (2.4), a persistent, patient, and tenacious adherence to the instructions and promises of God.