Who Hasn't Felt Your Cruelty?

Nahum 3 opens with a funeral cry: woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery—no end to the prey. Nahum calls Nineveh a bloody city, full of lies and robbery, and the prophet describes the coming battle in quick, sharp images. Yahweh of Armies declares, behold, I am against you, and he says Nineveh will be laid waste with no one left to mourn for her.

Nahum then asks a pointed question: are you better than No-Amon? This Egyptian city had the Nile as its rampart and Cush, Egypt, Put, and Libya as its helpers, yet it went into captivity. If such a city could fall, so could Nineveh. Its fortresses would be like fig trees with first-ripe figs that fall into the mouth of the eater when shaken. Its gates would be set wide open, and preparations for a siege would not help.

Nineveh's wealth would not save it. It had increased its merchants more than the stars of the skies, yet its guards and officials are like locusts that fly away when the sun appears. Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria, and your people are scattered on the mountains. The book closes with a question: all who hear the report clap their hands, for who hasn't felt your endless cruelty? Nahum ends with no hope for Nineveh, but with comfort for every nation that had suffered under it.