Nahum 3:1

Nahum pronounced woe on Nineveh, a city characterized by bloodshed. Here, as often elsewhere (e.g., Isaiah 3:9), "woe" announces impending doom. Sometimes "woe" is an expression of grief (e.g., Isaiah 6:5), but that is only its secondary meaning here. As noted earlier, the Assyrians were notorious for their cruelty that included cutting off hands, feet, ears, noses, gouging out eyes, lopping off heads, impaling bodies, and peeling the skin off living victims. [Note: See Maier, p. 292.] Nahum saw the city as completely full of lies (cf. 2 Kings 18:31) and pillage (cf. Nahum 2:9). Nineveh always had prey; she was constantly on the prowl looking for other nations to conquer.