the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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King James Version (1611 Edition)
Nahum 3:18
Bible Study Resources
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- InternationalParallel Translations
King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber;your officers sleep.Your people are scattered across the mountainswith no one to gather them together.
Your shepherds slumber, king of Ashshur. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.
Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.
Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them.
Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria; Your officers are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains And there is no one to gather them.
King of Assyria, your rulers are asleep; your important men lie down to rest. Your people have been scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to bring them back.
Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; Your nobles are lying down [in death]. Your people are scattered on the mountains And there is no one to gather them.
Thy shepheardes doe sleepe, O King of Asshur: thy strong men lie downe: thy people is scattered vpon the mountaines, and no man gathereth them.
Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria; Your nobles are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains And there is no one to regather them.
Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria;Your mighty ones are lying down.Your people are scattered on the mountains,And there is no one to regather them.
O king of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your officers sleep. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.
King of Assyria, your officials and leaders sleep the eternal sleep, while your people are scattered in the mountains. Yes, your people are sheep without a shepherd.
Your shepherds are slumbering, king of Ashur. Your leaders are asleep. Your people are scattered all over the mountains, with no one to round them up.
Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; thy nobles lie still; thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.
King of Assyria, your shepherds fell asleep. These powerful men are sleeping. And now your sheep have wandered away on the mountains. There is no one to bring them back.
Your friends slumber, O king of Assyria; your allies have deserted; your people are scattered on the mountains, and they have none to gather them.
Emperor of Assyria, your governors are dead, and your noblemen are asleep forever! Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to bring them home again.
Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria! Your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains; no one can gather them.
Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; your nobles are lying down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and no one is gathering.
Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; thy nobles are at rest; thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and there is none to gather them.
Sorrow! how are the keepers of your flock sleeping, O king of Assyria! your strong men are at rest; your people are wandering on the mountains, and there is no one to get them together.
Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria, thy worthies are at rest; thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and there is none to gather them.
Thy sheepheardes O king of Assur slumber, thy noble men shall dwell [in death] thy people is scattered vpon the mountaynes, & there is none to gather them together.
Thy shepherds have slumbered, the Assyrian king has laid low thy mighty men: thy people departed to the mountains, and there was none to receive them.
Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy worthies are at rest: thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and there is none to gather them.
Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to gather them.
Thi scheepherdis napten, thou kyng Assur, thi princes schulen be biried; thi puple ofte was hid in hillis, and ther is not that schal gadere.
Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; your nobles are at rest; your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is none to gather them.
Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell [in the dust]: thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth [them].
Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria! Your officers are slumbering! Your people are scattered like sheep on the mountains and there is no one to regather them!
Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; Your nobles rest in the dust. Your people are scattered on the mountains, And no one gathers them.
Your shepherds are asleep, O Assyrian king; your princes lie dead in the dust. Your people are scattered across the mountains with no one to gather them together.
Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria. Your leaders are lying down. Your people have gone everywhere on the mountains. And there is no one to gather them together again.
Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.
Asleep are thy shepherds, O king of Assyria, thy nobles, must needs rest. Scattered are thy people upon the mountains, and there is none to gather them.
Thy shepherds have slumbered, O king of Assyria, thy princes shall be buried: thy people are hid in the mountains, and there is none to gather them.
Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them.
Slumbered have thy friends, king of Asshur, Rest do thine honourable ones, Scattered have been thy people on the mountains, And there is none gathering.
Thy shepherdes are aslepe (o kinge of Assur) thy worthies are layed downe: yi people is scatred abrode vpon the mountaynes, and no man gathereth them together agayne.
King of Assyria! Your shepherd-leaders, in charge of caring for your people, Are busy doing everything else but. They're not doing their job, And your people are scattered and lost. There's no one to look after them. You're past the point of no return. Your wound is fatal. When the story of your fate gets out, the whole world will applaud and cry "Encore!" Your cruel evil has seeped into every nook and cranny of the world. Everyone has felt it and suffered.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Thy shepherds: That is, the rulers and tributary princes, who, as Herodotus informs us, deserted Nineveh in the day of her distress, and came not to her succour. Diodorus also says, that when the enemy shut up the king in the city, many nations revolted; each going over to the besiegers for the sake of their liberty; that the king despatched messengers to all his subjects, requiring power from them to succour him, and that he thought himself able to endure the siege, and remained in expectation of armies which were to be raised throughout his empire, relying on the oracle, that the city would not be taken till the river became its enemy. Nahum 2:6, Exodus 15:16, Psalms 76:5, Psalms 76:6, Isaiah 56:9, Isaiah 56:10, Jeremiah 51:39, Jeremiah 51:57
O King: Jeremiah 50:18, Ezekiel 31:3-18, Ezekiel 32:22, Ezekiel 32:23
nobles: or, valiant ones, Isaiah 47:1, Revelation 6:15
thy people: 1 Kings 22:17, Isaiah 13:14
Reciprocal: Jeremiah 6:3 - shepherds Jeremiah 50:36 - her mighty Ezekiel 31:11 - I have driven Ezekiel 31:12 - gone Zephaniah 2:13 - will make
Cross-References
And the LORD God said vnto the Serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed aboue all cattel, and aboue euery beast of the field: vpon thy belly shalt thou goe, and dust shalt thou eate, all the dayes of thy life.
And I will put enmitie betweene thee and the woman, and betweene thy seed and her seed: it shal bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heele.
Know for a certainety, that the Lord your God will no more driue out any of these nations from before you: but they shalbe snares and traps vnto you, and scourges in your sides, and thornes in your eyes, vntill yee perish from off this good land which the Lord your God hath giuen you.
And said, Naked came I out of my mothers wombe, and naked shall I returne thither: the Lord gaue, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the Name of the Lord.
Whose haruest the hungry eateth vp, and taketh it euen out of the thorns, and the robber swalloweth vp their substance.
Let thistles grow in stead of wheat, and cockle in stead of barley. The words of Iob are ended.
Thou turnest man to destruction: and sayest, Returne yee children of men.
Who couerest thy selfe with light, as with a garment: who stretchest out the heauens like a curtaine.
Thornes and snares are in the way of the froward: he that doeth keepe his soule, shalbe farre from them.
And loe, it was all growen ouer with thornes, and nettles had couered the face thereof, and the stone wall therof was broken downe:
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria,.... Who this king of Assyria was is not easy to say; some think Esarhaddon, who is the last of the kings of Assyria the Scriptures speak of; according to Diodorus Siculus n, Sardanapalus was the last of these kings, and in him the Assyrian monarchy ended; though, according to Alexander Polyhistor o, Saracus, perhaps the Chyniladanus of Ptolemy, was king when Nineveh was destroyed: it is very likely that Sardanapalus and Saracus design the same person, though set at a great distance by historians; since the same things are said of the one as of the other; particularly that, when they saw their danger, they burnt themselves and theirs in the royal palace at Nineveh; nor is it probable that the same city with the empire should be destroyed and subverted twice by the same people, the Medes and Babylonians, uniting together; and it is remarkable that the double destruction of this city and empire is related by different historians; and those that speak of the one say nothing of the other: but this king, be he who he will, his case was very bad, his "shepherds slumbered"; his ministers of state, his counsellors, subordinate magistrates in provinces and cities, and particularly in Nineveh; his generals and officers in his army were careless and negligent of their duty, and gave themselves up to sloth and ease; and which also was his own character, as historians agree in; or they were dead, slumbering in their graves, and so could be of no service to him:
thy nobles shall dwell [in the dust]; be brought very low, into a very mean and abject condition; their honour shall be laid in the dust, and they be trampled upon by everyone: or, "they shall sleep" p; that is, die, and be buried, as the Vulgate Latin renders it: or, "shall dwell in silence", as others q; have their habitation in the silent grave, being cut off by the enemy; so that this prince would have none of his mighty men to trust in, but see himself stripped of all his vain confidences:
thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth [them]; like sheep without a shepherd, which being frightened by beasts of prey, run here and there, and there is none to get them together, and bring them back again; so the subjects of this king, being terrified at the approach of the Medes and Babylonians, forsook their cities, and fled to the mountains; where they were scattered about, having no leader and commander to gather them together, and put them in regular order to face and oppose the enemy. So the Targum interprets it
"the people of thine armies.''
n Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 109, 115. o Apud Syncell. p. 210. p ישכבו "dormiunt", Piscator; so Ben Melech interprets it, "the rest of death." q "Habitarunt in silentio", Buxtorf, Drusius.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Thy shepherds - that is, they who should counsel for the people’s good and feed it, and “keep watch over their flocks by night,” but are now like their master, the “King of Assyria,” are his shepherds not the shepherds of the people whom they care not for; these slumber, at once through listlessness and excess, and now have fallen asleep in death, as the Psalmist says, “They have slept their sleep” Psalms 76:6. The prophet speaks of the future, as already past in effect, as it was in the will of God. All “the shepherds of the people” , all who could shepherd them, or hold them to together, themselves sleep “the sleep of death;” their mighty men dwelt in that abiding-place, where they shall not move or rise, the grave; and so as Micaiah, in the vision predictive of Ahab’s death, “saw all Israel scattered on the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd” 1 Kings 22:17, so the people of the Assyrian monarch shall be “scattered on the mountains,” shepherdless, and that irretrievably; no man gathers them.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Nahum 3:18. Thy shepherds slumber — That is, the rulers and tributary princes, who, as Herodotus informs us, deserted Nineveh in the day of her distress, and came not forward to her succour.
Diodorus Siculus says, lib. ii., when the enemy shut up the king in the city, many nations revolted, each going over to the besiegers, for the sake of their liberty; that the king despatched messengers to all his subjects, requiring power from them to succour him; and that he thought himself able to endure the siege, and remained in expectation of armies which were to be raised throughout his empire, relying on the oracle that the city would not be taken till the river became its enemy. Nahum 2:6.
