Nahum 3:1

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Nahum 3:1-7

Here is, I. Nineveh arraigned and indicted. It is a high charge that is here drawn up against that great city, and neither her numbers nor her grandeur shall secure her from prosecution. 1. It is a city of blood, in which a great deal of innocent blood is shed by unrighteous war, or under colour and pretence of public justice, or by suffering barbarous murders to go unpunished; for this the righteous God will make inquisition. 2. It is all full of lies; truth is banished from among them; there... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Nahum 3:1

Woe to the bloody city ,.... Nineveh, in which many murders were daily committed; innocent blood shed; the lives of men taken away, under the colour of justice, by false witnesses, and other unlawful methods; and which was continually making war with neighbouring nations, and shedding their blood, which it stuck not at, to enlarge its wealth and dominions; and therefore "woe" is denounced against it; and it is threatened with the righteous judgments of God, with all sorts of calamity and... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Nahum 3:1

Wo to the bloody city! - Nineveh: the threatenings against which are continued in a strain of invective, astonishing for its richness, variety, and energy. One may hear and see the whip crack, the horses prancing, the wheels rumbling, the chariots bounding after the galloping steeds; the reflection from the drawn and highly polished swords; and the hurled spears, like gashes of lightning, dazzling the eyes; the slain lying in heaps, and horses and chariots stumbling over them! O what a... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Nahum 3:1

Verse 1 The Prophet, as I have said, more clearly expresses here the reason why the vengeance of God would be so severe on the Ninevites, — because they had wholly given themselves up to barbarous cruelty; and hence he calls it the bloody city. Bloody city! he says. The exclamation is emphatical. Though הו, eu, sometimes means Woe; yet it is put here as though the Prophet would have constrained Nineveh to undergo its punishment, O sanguinary city, then, the whole of it is full of כחש cachesh:... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Nahum 3:1

The bloody city; literally, city of bloods , where Mood is shed without scruple (comp. Ezekiel 24:6 , Ezekiel 24:9 ; Habakkuk 2:12 ). The cruelty of the Assyrians is attested by the monuments, in which we see or read how prisoners were impaled alive, flayed, beheaded, dragged to death with ropes passed through rings in their lips, blinded by the king's own hand, hung up by hands or feet to die in slow torture. Others have their brains beaten out, or their tongues torn out by the... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Nahum 3:1-7

§ 1. The prophet specifies the crimes which have brought this ruin upon Nineveh. read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Nahum 3:1-7

Woe to Nineveh. I. THREATENED . ( Nahum 3:1 .) 1. By the prophet. Jonah ( Jonah 3:4 ) had once before announced the destruction of the Assyrian capital, which threatening, however, was averted by the repentance of its inhabitants; Nahum's prediction was literally fulfilled, because Nineveh in due time filled up the measure of its iniquities. 2 . In the name of God. Had Nineveh's doom been pronounced only by Nahum's lips, it had been harmless; but Nahum was the mouthpiece... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Nahum 3:1-7

The guilt and ruin of Nineveh. We have here— I. A MOURNFUL REVELATION OF NATIONAL GUILT AND DEPRAVITY . ( Nahum 3:1 , Nahum 3:4 .) The Assyrians are here charged with: 1 . Unrighteous war. ( Nahum 3:1 .) There may be times in a nation's history when war becomes a dire necessity; but all war prompted, not by the desire to defend against unworthy aggression, but by unholy ambition, aggrandizement, lust of conquest and glory, deserves the severest reprobation.... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Nahum 3:1-19

Part III . THE CAUSE OF THE JUDGMENT — SINS OF THE CITY , WHICH BRING INEVITABLE PUNISHMENT . read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Nahum 3:1

Woe to the bloody city - Literally, “city of bloods” , i. e., of manifold bloodshedding, built and founded in blood Habakkuk 2:12; Jeremiah 22:13, as the prosperity of the world ever is. Murder, oppression, wresting of judgment, war out of covetousness, grinding or neglect of the poor, make it “a city of bloods.” Nineveh, or the world, is a city of the devil, as opposed to the “city of God.” : “Two sorts of love have made two sorts of cities; the earthly, love of self even to contempt of God;... read more

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