Nahum 3:6
in Nahum 3I will pelt you with filth and treat you with contempt; I will make a spectacle of you.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing-stock.
KJV
And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.
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This verse in Nahum 3
Commentary
8 notes on this verseAnd I will cast abominable filth upon thee,.... As dirt and dung, or any or everything that is abominable and filthy; and which is thrown at harlots publicly disgraced, and as used to be at persons when carted.
This site's exposition
Behold, I am against you
on Nahum 3:5-7
The sentence of 2:13 returns, "Behold, I am against you," and the LORD of Hosts brings back on Nineveh the shame she spread on others. To "show your nakedness to the nations" is the ancient penalty for the harlotry. The LORD asks where He can find "comforters for you".
This site's exposition
pelt you with filth
The punishment is the public shaming given to a disgraced woman in the ancient world. Adam Clarke compares it to the pillory, where the crowd threw dirt at the one set up to be stared at. The city that shamed nations becomes the spectacle.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 5, 6.) Behold, I am coming to you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will reveal your shame before your face, and I will show your nakedness to the nations, and your disgrace to the kingdoms. And I will cast abominations upon you, and afflict you with insults, and make you an example.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Instances of like judgments for like sins, ver. 18-11. The overthrow of all wherein they trusted, ver. 12-19.
quarantine:anchor (2026-07-29) — cites-ver-18/12-anchored-1-7
Note, When proud sinners are humbled and brought down it is designed that others should take example by them not to lift up themselves in security and insolence when they prosper in the world. 8 Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-run:31w-of-65
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
I will cast abominable filth upon thee - I will set thee as a gazing-stock. This was a punishment precisely like our pillory. They put such women in the pillory as a gazing-stock; and then, children and others threw mud, dirt, and filth of all kinds at them.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
And I will cast abominable filth upon thee - Alb.: “like a weight, that what thou wouldest not take heed to as sin, thou mayest feel in punishment.” “Abominable things had God seen” Jer 13:27 in her doings; with abominable things would he punish her. Man would fain sin, and forget it as a thing past. “God maketh him to possess the iniquities of his youth” Job 13:26, and binds them around him, so that they make him to appear what they are, “vile” (compare Wisd. 4:18), “These things hast thou done and I kept silence; - I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes. And will set thee as a gazing-stock” Psa 50:21, that all, while they gaze at thee, take warning from thee (compare 2Ch 7:20). “I will cast thee to the ground; before kings will I give thee, for them to gaze upon thee” Eze 28:17. : “Whoever does not amend on occasion of others, others shall be amended on occasion of him.”
The words behind it
6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְהִשְׁלַכְתִּ֥י | vehishlakhti | and I will throw | H7993 → | |
| עָלַ֛יִךְ | ʾalayikh | on you | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| שִׁקֻּצִ֖ים | shikutzim | detestable things | H8251 → | |
| וְנִבַּלְתִּ֑יךְ | venibaltikh | and I will treat with contempt you | H5034 → | |
| וְשַׂמְתִּ֖יךְ | vesamtikh | and I will make you | H7760 → | |
| כְּרֹֽאִי׃ | keroi | like a spectacle | H7210 → |
וְהִשְׁלַכְתִּ֥יand I will throw
vehishlakhtiH7993 →
עָלַ֛יִךְon you
ʾalayikhH5921 →5755 times
שִׁקֻּצִ֖יםdetestable things
shikutzimH8251 →
וְנִבַּלְתִּ֑יךְand I will treat with contempt you
venibaltikhH5034 →
וְשַׂמְתִּ֖יךְand I will make you
vesamtikhH7760 →
כְּרֹֽאִי׃like a spectacle
keroiH7210 →
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
Malachi 2:9“So I in turn have made you despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not kept My ways, but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 1:17
Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And bring to me any case too difficult for you, and I…
- 1 Samuel 2:30
Therefore, the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the LORD declares: Far be it…
- Luke 11:42
Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint, rue, and every herb, but you disregard justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.
- Ezekiel 13:12–16
Surely when the wall has fallen, you will not be asked, ‘Where is the whitewash with which you covered it?’
- Deuteronomy 1:17
Through
Job 30:8A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land.
it leads to
- Proverbs 16:22
Understanding is a fountain of life to its possessor, but the discipline of fools is folly.
- Proverbs 1:7
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.
- Proverbs 1:22
“How long, O simple ones, will you love your simple ways? How long will scoffers delight in their scorn and fools hate knowledge?
- Proverbs 16:22
Through
Jeremiah 51:37Babylon will become a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals, an object of horror and scorn, without inhabitant.
it leads to
- Revelation 18:2
And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable…
- Revelation 18:2
Where this verse is studied
About Nahum
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jerome, Commentary on Nahum; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.