Behold, your troops among you are women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your bars.
Parallel Translations
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Behold, your troops among you are women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The fire has devoured your bars.
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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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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.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Nahum 3:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 51:30 The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting, they remain in their strongholds. Their might has failed. They have become as women. Her dwelling places are set on fire. Her bars are broken.
- Isaiah 19:16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble and fear because of the shaking of Yahweh of Armies’s hand, which he shakes over them.
- Jeremiah 50:37 A sword is on their horses, on their chariots, and on all the mixed people who are in the middle of her; and they will become as women. A sword is on her treasures, and they will be robbed.
- Nahum 2:6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved.
- Isaiah 45:1-2 Yahweh says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their armor; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut: “I will go before you and make the rough places smooth. I will break the doors of bronze in pieces and cut apart the bars of iron.
- Psalms 107:16 For he has broken the gates of bronze, and cut through bars of iron.
- Psalms 147:13 For he has strengthened the bars of your gates. He has blessed your children within you.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet declares here, that the hearts of them…
The Prophet declares here, that the hearts of them all would become soft and effeminate when God would proceed to destroy Nineveh. We have said before that the hearts of men are so in the hand of God, that he melts whatever courage there may be in them, whenever he pleases: and God prepares men for ruin, when he debilitates their hearts, that they cannot bear the sight of their enemies. God indeed can leave in men their perverseness, so that they may ever run furiously into ruin, and not be able, with a courageous heart, to repel the attacks of their enemies; but he often softens their hearts and deprives them of power, that he may make more evident his judgment: God does not, however, always work in the same way; for variety in his judgments is calculated to do us good, for thereby our minds are more powerfully awakened. Were his proceedings uniformly the same, we could not so well distinguish the hand of God, as when he acts now in this way, and then in another. But, as I have already said, it is what is well known, that God enervates men and strips them of all courage, when he gives them over to destruction.
So now the Prophet speaks of the Ninevites, Behold, he says, thy people are women The demonstrative particle, Behold, is here emphatical: for the Assyrians, no doubt, ridiculed, as a fable, the prediction of the Prophet; and it was what the Israelites found it difficult to believe. This is the reason why the Prophet pointed out, as by the finger, what surpassed the comprehensions of men. By saying, in the midst of thee, he intimates, that though they should be separated from their enemies and dwell in a fortified city, they should yet be filled with trembling. This amplification deserves to be noticed: for it is nothing wonderful, when an onset frightens us, when enemies join battle with us, and when many things present themselves before our eyes, which are calculated to deprive us of courage; but when we are frightened by report only concerning our enemies, and we become fainthearted, though walls be between us, it then appears evident, that we are smitten by the hand of God; for when we see walls of stone, and yet our hearts become brittle like glass, is it not evident, that we are inwardly terrified by the Lord, as it were, through some hidden influence, rather than through intervening and natural causes? We now then perceive the Prophet’s meaning, when he says, that the people would become women, or effeminate, in the midst of the city, in its very bowels; as though he had said, that they would not cease to tremble, even while they were dwelling in a safe place.
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By opening, opened shall be thy gates, he says, to thy enemies. He shows again, that though the Assyrians were fortified, every access would be made open to their enemies, as though there was no fortress. By saying, the gates of thy land, it is probable that he speaks not only of the city, but of all their strongholds. The Assyrians, no doubt, fortified many cities, in order to keep afar off the enemy, and to preserve the chief seat of the empire free from danger and fear. I therefore understand the Prophet as referring here to many cities, when he says, By opening, opened shall be the gates of thy land to thine enemies and fire shall consume thy bars He means, that though they had before carefully fortified the whole land around, so that they thought themselves secure from all hostile invasion, yet all this would be useless; for the fire would consume all their bars. By fire, the Prophet understands metaphorically the judgment of God. For as we see that so great is the vehemence of fire, that it melts iron and brass, so the Prophet means, that there would be no strength which could defend Nineveh and its empire against the hand of God. It follows —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Nah 3:13 Behold, thy people in the midst of…
Nah 3:13 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.
Ver. 13. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women] i.e. Fearful and faint hearted; ‘Aχηιδες ουκετ Aχαιοι. See Isa 3:12 Jer 51:30; Jer 48:41. And this in the midst of thee, where they should be most valiant, like cocks on their own dunghills, as they say. Lo, those that formerly faced the heavens, and, by a cyclopical kind of impiety, slighted God, and dared the devil to a duel, how crestfallen they are and courageless when the enemy is upon them; the noise of a driven leaf frightens them, Lev 26:36; a panic terror seizes upon them, as it did once upon the Syrians, 2Ki 7:15, and upon the Imperialists, in the war against the Hussites, so that they could not strike a stroke; and upon the Burgundians, who, expecting a battle, thought long thistles were lances, and turned their backs, with those Ephraimites, Psa 78:9. It is God that puts mettle into men, that strengthens or weakens the arm of either party, Eze 30:24. These lions, as they are called Nah 2:12, that formerly rushing out of Nineveh, their den, filled it with ravine, tearing and spoiling all they met with, are now become harts and stags; that have great horns, but do nothing with them, quia deest animus, because they lack courage; or as those Eretrians, of whom Themistocles said, that they were like the sword fish, that had a sword indeed, but not a heart to make use of it (Plutarch).
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The gates of thy land shall be set wide open] Thy frontier towns and five ports, those keys of the kingdom, aperiendo aperientur, shall open to give the enemy entrance; as at the siege of Jerusalem the iron gate opened of its own accord.
The fire shall devour thy barns] Because God, who is a consuming fire, shall remove out of the enemies’ way all obstacles and impediments; so that all shall be pervious and patent to them. Fire God had threatened once before, Nah 2:13, and it may very well be that the gates were fired without a metaphor. See Nah 3:15.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Behold; this may seem strange, but attend diligently, thou…
Behold; this may seem strange, but attend diligently, thou shalt see how this will be.
Thy people; those thou hirest, and are thine for pay; those that are born thine, all thy warriors.
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In the midst of thee; where very cowards use to be valiant, or where necessity makes cowards valiant, where they should show most valour.
Are women; weak, afraid, flee away, and hide themselves, Jer 48:41; 51:30. God would fill them with terror, and they shall not dare to keep their gates shut against the enemy.
The gates of thy land, the cities, but especially the strong fortified frontiers which should keep out the enemy,
shall be set wide open; shall either through fear or treachery be opened, wide opened to admit the enemy.
Thine enemies; Chaldeans, and their confederates.
The fire shall devour; when the enemy is thus admitted, he shall burn either the city or the gates and bars, he will never trust nor spare thee.
Bars; with which the gates were both shut and strengthened, 1Sa 23:7; Psa 147:13.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are…
Behold, 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 2:7. The sense is, they should be at once dispirited, and lose all strength of mind and body, and have neither heads nor hearts to form schemes, and execute them in their own defence; and thus should they be, even in the midst of the city, upon their own ground, where, any where, it might be thought they would exert themselves, and play the man, since their all lay at stake: this was another thing they trusted in, the multitude of their people, even of their soldiers; but these would be of no avail, since they would lose all their military skill and bravery:
the gates of thy land shall be set wide open to thine enemies: instead of guarding the passes and avenues, they would abandon them to the enemy; and, instead of securing the gates and passages, they would run away from them; and the enemy would find as easy access as if they were thrown open on purpose for them; perhaps this may respect the gates of the rivers being opened by the inundation, which threw down the wall, and made a way into the city; see Nah 2:6,
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the fire shall devour thy bars; with which their gates had been shut, but now opened, and in the enemies' hands; who would set fire to them, that the way to go in and out might be open and free.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Are women - Were very cowards. The gates -…
Are women - Were very cowards. The gates - The strong frontiers. Wide open - Either through fear or treachery. Thy bars - With which the gates were shut and strengthened.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. Thy people - are women] They lost…
Verse 13. 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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are…
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 21:26. Where sin reigns, there is no strength left, no manliness or nobleness of soul, no power to resist. “In the midst of thee,” where thou seemest most secure, and, if anywhere, there were hope of safety. The very inmost self of the sinner gives way.
To thine enemies - (This is, for emphasis, prefixed) not for any good to thee, but “to thine enemies shall be set wide open the gates of thy land,” not, “thy gates,” i. e., the gates of their cities, (which is a distinct idiom), but “the gates of the land” itself, every avenue, which might have been closed against the invader, but which was “laid open.” The Easterns, as well as the Greeks and Latins . See further Liddell and Scott, loc. cit.) the πύλαι τῆς Κιλικίας καὶ τῆς Συρίας pulai tēs Kilikias kai tēs Surias, Xen. Anab. i. 4. 14, the “Amsnicae Pylae” (Q. Curt. iii. 20). Pliny speaks of the “portae Caucasiae” (H. N. vi. 11) or “Iberiae” (Albaniae Ptol. v. 12.) Ibid. 15), used the word “gate” or “doors” of the mountain passes, which gave an access to a land, but which might be held against an enemy. In the pass called “the Caucasian gates,” there were, over and above, doors fastened with iron bars . At Thermopylae or, as the inhabitants called them, Pylae , “gates,” the narrow pass was further guarded by a wall . Its name recalls the brilliant history, how such approaches might be held by a devoted handful of men against almost countless multitudes. Of Assyria, Pliny says , “The Tigris and pathless mountains encircle Adiabene.” When those “gates of the land” gave way, the whole land was laid open to its enemies.
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The fire shall devour thy bars - Probably, as elsewhere, the bars of the gates, which were mostly of wood, since it is added expressly of some, that they were of the iron Psa 107:16; Isa 14:2 or brass 1Ki 4:13. : “Occasionally the efforts of the besiegers were directed against the gate, which they endeavored to break open with axes, or to set on fire by application of a torch - In the hot climate of S. Asia wood becomes so dry by exposture to the sun, that the most solid doors may readily be ignited and consumed.” It is even remarked in one instance that the Assyrians “have not set fire to the gates of this city, as appeared to be their usual practice in attacking a fortified place.”
So were her palaces buried as they stood, that the traces of prolonged fire are still visible, calcining the one part and leaving others which were not exposed to it, uncalcined. : “It is incontestable that, during the excavations, a considerable quantity of charcoal, and even pieces of wood, either half-burnt or in a perfect state of preservation, were found in many places. The lining of the chambers also bears certain marks of the action of fire. All these things can be explained only by supposing the fall of a burning roof, which calcined the slabs of gypsum and converted them into dust. It would be absurd to imagine that the burning of a small quantity of furniture could have left on the walls marks like these which are to be seen through all the chambers, with the exception of one, which was only an open passage. It must have been a violent and prolonged fire, to be able to calcine not only a few places, but every part of these slabs, which were ten feet high and several inches thick. So complete a decomposition can be attributed but to intense heat, such as would be occasioned by the fall of a burning roof.
“Botta found on the engraved flag-stones scoria and half-melted nails, so that there is no doubt that these appearances had been produced by the action of intense and long-sustained beat. He remembers, beside, at Khorsabad, that when he detached some bas-reliefs from the earthy substance which covered them, in order to copy the inscriptions that were behind, he found there coals and cinders, which could have entered only by the top, between the wall and the back of the bas-relief. This can be easily understood to have been caused by the burning of the roof, but is inexplicable in any other manner. What tends most positively to prove that the traces of fire must be attributed to the burning of a wooden roof is, that these traces are perceptible only in the interior of the building. The gypsum also that covers the wall inside is completely calcined, while the outside of the building is nearly everywhere untouched. But wherever the fronting appears to have at all suffered from fire, it is at the bottom; thus giving reason to suppose that the damage has been done by some burning matter falling outside. In fact, not a single bas-relief in a state to be removed was found in any of the chambers, they were all pulverized.”
The soul which does not rightly close its senses against the enticements of the world, does, in fact, open them, and death is come up into our windows Jer 9:21, and then “whatever natural good there yet be, which, as bars, would hinder the enemy from bursting in, is consumed by the fire,” once kindled, of its evil passions.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain thy people--thy soldiers.
thy people--thy soldiers.
women--unable to fight for thee (Isa 19:16; Jer 50:37; Jer 51:30).
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gates on thy land--the fortified passes or entrances to the region of Nineveh (compare Jer 15:7). 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. 194, 197].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 13. Dismay and paralysis seize the Assyrians before the…
13. Dismay and paralysis seize the Assyrians before the enemy. The comparison to “women” is common, Isa_19:16; Jer_49:22; Jer_50:37; Jer_51:30; also in the Assyr. inscriptions.
in the midst of thee] i.e. throughout the land, not merely in the city of Nineveh.
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gates of thy land shall be set open] are set open. The gates of the land are the passes or defiles or the ways guarded by defences through which entrance is obtained into the country or advance made towards the capital.
shall devour] hath devoured. The term “bars” may be used metaphorically to describe the forts themselves; or literally, the bars of the gates of such defences. When the gates are burnt the forts fall.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) Thy people . . . are women, not…
(13) Thy people . . . are women, not in their notoriously effeminate and luxurious habits (see Layard, p. 360), but with reference to their panic-stricken condition at the time of the catastrophe. They are fearful as women (comp. Jer_50:37; Jer_51:30), because they find avenues laid open to the enemy, and the remaining defences consuming in the flames.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The reason why the fortresses are so readily taken…
The reason why the fortresses are so readily taken is now given. Are women. The Assyrians were essentially a brave nation, but they should be now no more able to resist the enemy than if they were women. (Isa_19:16 Jer_1:3-7 Jer_51:30) The gates of thy land. The various approaches and passes which lead into Assyria. (comp. Jer_15:7 Mic_5:6) So Strabo (11:12. 13) speaks of certain mountain passes as "the Caspian gates" and Xenophon ("Anab." 1:4. 4) mentions "the gates of Cilicia and Syria." The famous defile that led into Greece was called Thermopylae The fire shall devour thy bars. Hitzig, Keil, and others take the "bars" metaphorically, meaning the forts and castles which defend the passes; but the literal sense is the most natural, as in the parallel passage, Jer_51:30. (see note on Amo_1:5) It was the Assyrians" custom to set fire to the gates of any city that they attacked (see Bonomi, "Nineveh and its Palaces," pp. 178, 185, 192). "It is incontestable," says Bonomi, in another place, "that, during the excavations, a considerable quantity of charcoal, and even pieces of wood either half burnt or in a perfect state of preservation, were found in many places. The lining of the chambers also bears certain marks of the action of fire. All these things can be explained only by supposing the fall of a burning roof, which calcined the slabs of gypsum, and converted them into dust .... It must have been a violent and prolonged fire to be able to calcine not only a few places, but every part of these slabs, which were ten feet high and several inches thick. So complete a decomposition can be attributed but to intense heat" (ibid., p. 213).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.