July 21, 2019: Day 85 – Nahum 3

It seems like Nineveh is getting what it deserved, at least this is what was mentioned in vs.19 as the rhetorical question posed is: “who has ever escaped your cruelty?”  With that question comes the statement that we can assume, and so you will not escape the cruelty that is falling on you because you did the same thing to everyone else.  

This prophecy of  Nahum, an oracle against  the nations, is from the beginning to the end a tirade against Nineveh and a description of her destruction which is posed in a somewhat matter of fact yet gleeful way.  The author, you can tell, is pumped about Nineveh being destroyed.  It is such a different perspective than the author who described the destruction of the Benjaminites and called them mighty warriors where here the soldiers of Nineveh in vs.13 are described in this way: “Look at your troops; they are women in your midst.”  

Now some may take offense especially if they happened to see Black Panther and  recognize the strength of the warriors, all of whom happened to be women.  But certainly this was meant as a snub and an insult.  Notice also that Nineveh is a “she”, which make sense because in the Hebrew the word is also in the feminine, so it would only work if the place were described as a she.  So this book of the Bible comes to a close, a vivid, graphic description of the downfall of Nineveh and all of its citizens.