Nahum 3:13
in Nahum 3Look at your troops—they are like your women! The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire consumes their bars.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women; the gates of thy land are set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire hath devoured thy bars.
KJV
Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars.
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This verse in Nahum 3
Commentary
7 notes on this verseBehold, thy people in the midst of thee are women,.... Or like women, weak and feeble, fearful and timorous; frightened at the first approach of the enemy; run away, and run up and down in the utmost consternation and distress, having neither skill nor courage to oppose them; some regard may be had to the effeminacy of their king; see Nah 2:
This site's exposition
You too will become drunk
on Nahum 3:11-13
The comparison lands on Nineveh, "You too will become drunk," the fate of Thebes named as her own. Her fortresses are fig trees with "the first ripe figs," falling "into the mouth of the eater". Her gates stand "wide open to your enemies" with fire consuming their bars.
This site's exposition
they are like your women
The taunt names soldiers who have lost their courage. Albert Barnes sets it against the fierce warriors Assyria carved on its own monuments, and Jeremiah uses the same words of Babylon. The open gates may be the guarded passes in the hills northeast of Nineveh.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 13 onwards) Behold, your people, women in your midst: the gates of your land will be opened wide to your enemies: fire will devour your bars. Draw water for the siege: build your fortifications, go into the mud, and trample: force the brick. There the fire will consume you; you will perish by the sword, you will be devoured like the chigoe: gather therefore like the chigoe: multiply like the locust. You have made more deals than there are stars in the sky: the chigoe has spread out and flown away.
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women - Fierce, fearless, hard, iron men, such as their warriors still are portrayed by themselves on their monuments, they whom no toll wearied, no peril daunted, shall be, one and all, their whole “people, women.” So Jeremiah to Babylon, “they shall become, became, women” Jer 50:37; Jer 51:30. He sets it before the eyes. “Behold, thy people are women;” against nature they are such, not in tenderness but in weakness and fear. Among the signs of the Day of Judgment, it stands, “men’s hearts failing them for fear” Luk 21:
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Northeast of Nineveh there were hills affording a natural barrier against an invader; the guarded passes through these are probably "the gates of the land" meant. fire shall devour thy bars--the "bars" of the fortresses at the passes into Assyria. So in Assyrian remains the Assyrians themselves are represented as setting fire to the gates of a city [BONOMI, Nineveh, pp.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-brackets
Thy people - are women - They lost all courage, and made no resistance. O vere Phrygiae, neque enim Phryges: “Verily, ye are Phrygian women, not Phrygian men.” So said Numanus to the Trojans. Virg., Aen. ix.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
All your fortresses —It shall be easy to conquer all your fortified cities and to ravage all that is in their midst, like the fig trees when they are with their first ripe fruits; when the tree is shaken, the first ripe fruits fall into the mouth of the eaters.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
Draw siege water for yourself —When a city is about to be besieged, the people of the city gather much water into its midst in barrels, [so that they will have water] to drink during the days of the siege, when there are no cisterns within it [the city].
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הִנֵּ֨ה | hineh | there! | H2009 → | |
| עַמֵּ֤ךְ | ʾamekh | people your | H5971 → | |
| נָשִׁים֙ | nashim | [are] women | H802 → | |
| בְּקִרְבֵּ֔ךְ | bekirbekh | in midst your | H7130 → | |
| לְאֹ֣יְבַ֔יִךְ | leoyevayikh | to enemies your | H341 → | 282 times |
| פָּת֥וֹחַ | patoach | certainly <to open> | H6605 → | 144 times |
| נִפְתְּח֖וּ | niftechu | they will be opened | H6605 → | 144 times |
| שַׁעֲרֵ֣י | shaarei | [the] gates of | H8179 → | |
| אַרְצֵ֑ךְ | ʾartzekh | land your | H776 → | 2504 times |
| אָכְלָ֥ה | ʾakhelah | it will consume | H398 → | 810 times |
| אֵ֖שׁ | ʾesh | fire | H784 → | 378 times |
| בְּרִיחָֽיִך׃ | berichayikh | bars your | H1280 → |
הִנֵּ֨הthere!
hinehH2009 →
עַמֵּ֤ךְpeople your
ʾamekhH5971 →
נָשִׁים֙[are] women
nashimH802 →
בְּקִרְבֵּ֔ךְin midst your
bekirbekhH7130 →
לְאֹ֣יְבַ֔יִךְto enemies your
leoyevayikhH341 →282 times
פָּת֥וֹחַcertainly <to open>
patoachH6605 →144 times
נִפְתְּח֖וּthey will be opened
niftechuH6605 →144 times
שַׁעֲרֵ֣י[the] gates of
shaareiH8179 →
אַרְצֵ֑ךְland your
ʾartzekhH776 →2504 times
אָכְלָ֥הit will consume
ʾakhelahH398 →810 times
אֵ֖שׁfire
ʾeshH784 →378 times
בְּרִיחָֽיִך׃bars your
berichayikhH1280 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 50:37A sword is against her horses and chariots and against all the foreigners in her midst, and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 51:30
The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, the bars of her gates are broken.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 51:30
Through
Jeremiah 51:30The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, the bars of her gates are broken.
it leads to
- Isaiah 19:16
In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble with fear beneath the uplifted hand of the LORD of Hosts, when He brandishes it against them.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 50:36–37
A sword is against her false prophets, and they will become fools. A sword is against her warriors, and they will be filled with terror.
- Lamentations 2:9
Her gates have sunk into the ground; He has destroyed and shattered their bars. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and even her prophets find…
- Isaiah 13:7–8
Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.
- Psalms 76:5
The valiant lie plundered; they sleep their last sleep. No men of might could lift a hand.
- Isaiah 19:16
Through
Isaiah 19:16In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble with fear beneath the uplifted hand of the LORD of Hosts, when He brandishes it against them.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 50:37
A sword is against her horses and chariots and against all the foreigners in her midst, and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.
- Isaiah 11:15
The LORD will devote to destruction the gulf of the Sea of Egypt; with a scorching wind He will sweep His hand over the Euphrates. He will split it into seven streams for men…
- Jeremiah 50:37
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies3
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About Nahum
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Nahum; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).