Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Nahum · About this commentary
Woe to the Bloody City
Nahum 3:1-7
1 Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery—no end to the prey. · WEB
The charge is finally stated outright — blood, lies, and plunder — and the punishment is public exposure rather than mere defeat.
Chapter 3 opens with the indictment the first two assumed. Woe to the bloody city, full of lies and robbery, with no end to the prey. Blood — dam H1818 — is Scripture's word when violence has become a policy rather than an incident, and Assyria's own records make the charge easy to sustain.
Verses 2 and 3 run almost without verbs: cracking whips, rattling wheels, galloping horses, flashing swords. Then the noise stops and only the field is left, with men stumbling over the bodies. Verse 4 names the deeper offense as seduction rather than force — a nation selling nations through prostitution, which is how an empire recruits collaborators. So the sentence is exposure: nakedness shown to the nations, a spectacle made, and then the question nobody answers. Who will mourn for her?
settled What this mark means