and is not to be regarded as an Aramaeism or a dialectical variation (Ewald, §258, a). The tsere of the last syllable is occasioned by the previous tsere. Jerome has summed up the meaning very well as follows: “Thou wilt never lay countries waste any more, nor exact tribute, nor will thy messengers be heard throughout thy provinces.” (On the last clause, see Eze 19:9.) Nineveh's Sins and Inevitable Destruction - Nahum 3
The announcement of the destruction awaiting Nineveh is confirmed by the proof, that this imperial city has brought this fate upon itself by its sins and crimes (Nah 3:1-7), and will no more be able to avert it than the Egyptian No-amon was (Nah 3:8-13), but that, in spite of all its resources, it will be brought to a terrible end (Nah 3:14-19).
Chap. 3
Verse 1
The city of blood will have the shame, which it has inflicted upon the nations, repaid to it by a terrible massacre. The prophet announces this with the woe which opens the last section of this threatening prophecy. Nah 3:1. “Woe to the city of blood! She all full of deceit and murder; the prey departs not.” ‘Ir dâmı̄m, city of drops of blood, i.e., of blood shed, or of murders. This predicate is explained in the following clauses: she all full of lying and murder. Cachash and pereq are asyndeton, and accusatives dependent upon מלאה. Cachash, lying and deceit: this is correctly explained by Abarbanel and Strauss as referring to the fact that “she deceived the nations with vain promises of help and protection.” Pereq, tearing in pieces for murder, - a figure taken from the lion, which tears its prey in pieces (Psa 7:3). לא ימישׁ, the prey does not depart, never fails. Mūsh: in the hiphil here, used intransitively, “to depart,” as in Exo 13:22; Psa 55:12, and not in a transitive sense, “to cause to depart,” to let go; for if ‛ı̄r (the city) were the subject, we should have tâmı̄sh.
Verses 2-4
This threat is explained in Nah 3:2., by a description of the manner in which a hostile army enters Nineveh and fills the city with corpses. Nah 3:2. “The cracking of whips, and noise of the rattling of wheels, and the horse in galloping, and chariots
