Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, May 14th, 2025
the Fourth Week after Easter
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

New American Standard Bible (1995)

Nahum 3:1

Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; Her prey never departs.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Dishonesty;   Falsehood;   Theft and Thieves;   Thompson Chain Reference - Deceit;   Truth-Falsehood;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Lying;   Nineveh;   Sins, National;   Theft;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Assyria;   Nineveh;   War;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Nahum, Book of;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Nahum (2);   Nineveh;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Jonah;   Nahum;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Nineveh ;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Assyria;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Assyria;   Bloody;   Nahum, the Book of;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Woe to the city of blood,
Hebrew Names Version
Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey doesn't depart.
King James Version (1611)
Woe to the bloody City, it is all full of lyes and robberie, the pray departeth not.
King James Version
Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;
English Standard Version
Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey!
New American Standard Bible
Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; Her prey does not leave.
New Century Version
How terrible it will be for the city that has killed so many. It is full of lies and goods stolen from other countries. It is always killing somebody.
Amplified Bible
Woe (judgment is coming) to the city of blood [guilty of murder and mayhem], completely full of lies and pillage; Her prey never departs [alive].
Geneva Bible (1587)
O bloodie citie, it is all full of lyes, and robberie: the pray departeth not:
Legacy Standard Bible
Woe to the city of bloodshed, completely full of deception and pillage;Her prey never departs.
Berean Standard Bible
Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without prey.
Contemporary English Version
The Lord said: Doom to the crime capital! Nineveh, city of murder and treachery,
Complete Jewish Bible
Woe to the city of blood, steeped in lies, full of prey, with no end to the plunder!
Darby Translation
Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies [and] violence; the prey departeth not.
Easy-to-Read Version
It will be very bad for that city of murderers. Nineveh is a city full of lies. It is filled with things taken from other countries. It is filled with plenty of people that it hunted and killed.
George Lamsa Translation
WOE to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and iniquity; the plunder in it cannot be estimated.
Good News Translation
Doomed is the lying, murderous city, full of wealth to be looted and plundered!
Lexham English Bible
Woe to the city that has shed much blood! She is a deceiver, She is filled with plunder, She has hoarded her spoils of war.
Literal Translation
Woe to the bloody city! All of it is a lie, all of plunder; the prey is not withdrawn.
American Standard Version
Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and rapine; the prey departeth not.
Bible in Basic English
A curse is on the town of blood; it is full of deceit and violent acts; and there is no end to the taking of life.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and rapine; the prey departeth not.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
O bloody citie, stuffed throughout with falsehood, with extreme dealing, nor wilbe brought from spoyling.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
O city of blood, wholly false, full of unrighteousness; the prey shall not be handled.
English Revised Version
Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and rapine; the prey departeth not.
World English Bible
Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. The prey doesn't depart.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Wo to the citee of bloodis, al of leesyng, ful of to-reendyng; raueyn shal not go awei fro thee.
Update Bible Version
Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and rapine; the prey does not depart.
Webster's Bible Translation
Woe to the bloody city! it [is] all full of lies [and] robberies; the prey departeth not;
New English Translation
Woe to the city guilty of bloodshed! She is full of lies; she is filled with plunder; she has hoarded her spoil!
New King James Version
Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. Its victim never departs.
New Living Translation
What sorrow awaits Nineveh, the city of murder and lies! She is crammed with wealth and is never without victims.
New Life Bible
It is bad for the city of blood, full of lies and stolen riches! There is no end of her prizes of war!
New Revised Standard
Ah! City of bloodshed, utterly deceitful, full of booty— no end to the plunder!
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Alas for the city of bloodshed! All of it, deceit, of violence full, none releaseth prey!
Douay-Rheims Bible
Woe to thee, O city of blood, all full of lies and violence: rapine shall not depart from thee.
Revised Standard Version
Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and booty--no end to the plunder!
Young's Literal Translation
Wo [to] the city of blood, She is all with lies -- burglary -- full, Prey doth not depart.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Wo to that bloudthursty cite, which is all full of lyes and robbery, & wil not leaue of from rauy?shinge.
THE MESSAGE
Doom to Murder City— full of lies, bursting with loot, addicted to violence! Horns blaring, wheels clattering, horses rearing, chariots lurching, Horsemen galloping, brandishing swords and spears, Dead bodies rotting in the street, corpses stacked like cordwood, Bodies in every gutter and alley, clogging every intersection! And whores! Whores without end! Whore City, Fatally seductive, you're the Witch of Seduction, luring nations to their ruin with your evil spells.

Contextual Overview

1 Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage; Her prey never departs.2 The noise of the whip, The noise of the rattling of the wheel, Galloping horses And bounding chariots! 3 Horsemen charging, Swords flashing, spears gleaming, Many slain, a mass of corpses, And countless dead bodies— They stumble over the dead bodies! 4 All because of the many harlotries of the harlot, The charming one, the mistress of sorceries, Who sells nations by her harlotries And families by her sorceries. 5 "Behold, I am against you," declares the LORD of hosts; "And I will lift up your skirts over your face, And show to the nations your nakedness And to the kingdoms your disgrace. 6 "I will throw filth on you And make you vile, And set you up as a spectacle. 7 "And it will come about that all who see you Will shrink from you and say, 'Nineveh is devastated! Who will grieve for her?' Where will I seek comforters for you?"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

to: Isaiah 24:9, Ezekiel 22:2, Ezekiel 22:3, Ezekiel 24:6-9, Habakkuk 2:12, Zephaniah 3:1-3

bloody city: Heb. city of bloods

full: Nahum 2:12, Isaiah 17:14, Isaiah 42:24, Hosea 4:2

Reciprocal: Isaiah 10:14 - And my Ezekiel 24:9 - Woe Ezekiel 31:3 - the Assyrian Ezekiel 32:22 - Asshur Micah 5:6 - they Nahum 2:11 - the dwelling Nahum 2:13 - I will cut

Cross-References

Genesis 3:13
Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."
Ecclesiastes 4:10
For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.
Isaiah 27:1
In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.
Matthew 4:3
And the tempter came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."
Matthew 4:6
and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, 'HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU'; and 'ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'"
Matthew 4:9
and he said to Him, "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me."
Matthew 10:16
"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.
2 Corinthians 11:14
No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
1 Peter 3:7
You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 distress: or, "O bloody city", as the Septuagint; for the word used is vocative, and expressive of calling, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi observe:

it [is] all full of lies [and] robbery; the palace and court; the houses of noblemen and common persons were full of flattery and deceit; men of high degree were a lie, and men of low degree vanity; no man could trust another, or believe what he said; there were no truth, honesty, and faithfulness, in conversation or commerce; their warehouses were full of goods, got by rapine and violence; and their streets full of robbers and robberies:

the prey departeth not; they go on in making a prey of their neighbours, in pillaging and plundering their substance; they repent not of such evil practices, nor desist from them; or because of the above sins they shall fall a prey to the enemy, who will not cease plundering them till he has utterly stripped them of all they have; and who is represented in the next verse Nahum 3:2 as just at hand.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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; the heavenly, love of God even to contempt of self. The one glorieth in itself, the other in the Lord.” : “Amid the manifold differences of the human race, in languages, habits, rites, arms, dress, there are but two kinds of human society, which, according to our Scriptures, we may call two cities. One is of such as wish to live according to the flesh; the other of such as will according to the Spirit.” “Of these, one is predestined to live forever with God; the other, to undergo everlasting torment with the devil.” Of this city, or evil world, Nineveh, the city of bloods, is the type.

It is all full of lies and robbery - Better, “it is all lie; it is full of robbery” (rapine). “Lie” includes all falsehood, in word or act, denial of God, hypocrisy; toward man, it speaks of treachery, treacherous dealing, in contrast with open violence or rapine . The whole being of the wicked is one lie, toward God and man; deceiving and deceived; leaving no place for God who is the Truth; seeking through falsehood things which fail. Man “loveth vanity and seeketh after leasing” Psalms 4:2. All were gone out of the way. Alb.: “There were none in so great a multitude, for whose sake the mercy of God might spare so great a city.” It is full, not so much of booty as of rapine and violence. The sin remains, when the profit is gone. Yet it ceases not, but perseveres to the end; “the prey departs not;” they will neither leave the sin, nor the sin them; they neither repent, nor are weary of sinning. Avarice especially gains vigor in old age, and grows by being fed. “The prey departeth not,” but continues as a witness against it, as a lion’s lair is defiled by the fragments of his prey.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER III

The prophet denounces a wo against Nineveh for her perfidy and

violence. He musters up before our eyes the number of her

chariots and cavalry; points to her burnished arms, and to the

great and unrelenting slaughter which she spreads around her,

1-3.

Because Nineveh is a city wholly given up to the grossest

superstition, and is an instructress of other nations in

her abominable rites, therefore she shall come to a most

ignominious and unpitied end, 3-7.

Her final ruin shall be similar to that of No, a famous city

of Egypt, 8-11.

The prophet then beautifully describes the great ease with

which the strong holds of Nineveh should be taken, 12,

and her judicial pusillanimity during the siege, 13;

declares that all her preparation, her numbers, opulence, and

chieftains, would be of no avail in the day of the Lord's

vengeance, 14-17;

and that her tributaries would desert her, 18.

The whole concludes with stating the incurableness of her

malady, and the dreadful destruction consequently awaiting her;

and with introducing the nations which she had oppressed as

exulting at her fall, 19.

NOTES ON CHAP. III

Verse 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 flashes of lightning, dazzling the eyes; the slain lying in heaps, and horses and chariots stumbling over them! O what a picture, and a true representation of a battle, when one side is broken, and all the cavalry of the conqueror fall in upon them, hewing them down with their swords, and trampling them to pieces under the hoofs of their horses! O! infernal war! Yet sometimes thou art the scourge of the Lord.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile