Nahum 3:6

And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-7 When proud sinners are brought down, others should learn not to lift themselves up. The fall of this great city should be a lesson to private persons, who increase wealth by fraud and oppression. They are preparing enemies for themselves; and if the Lord sees good to punish them in this world, they will have none to pity them. Every man who seeks his own prosperity, safety, and peace, should not only act in an upright, honourable manner, but with kindness to all.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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" Jeremiah 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" Psalm 50:21, that all, while they gaze at thee, take warning from thee (compare 2 Chronicles 7:20). "I will cast thee to the ground; before kings will I give thee, for them to gaze upon thee" Ezekiel 28:17. : "Whoever does not amend on occasion of others, others shall be amended on occasion of him."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

6. cast abominable filth upon thee—as infamous harlots used to be treated.

gazing stock—exposed to public ignominy as a warning to others (Eze 28:17).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I will cast, by the Chaldean and Medish army, which God will stir up against the Assyrian monarchy,

abominable filth upon thee; as is done to lewd women.

Make thee vile: Nineveh had made herself morally evil and vile by sinning; now she shall be made penally rite.

And will set thee, O Nineveh, as a gazingstock; at which they shall wonder and be astonished, some shall take warning too: so Sennacherib’s tomb was a standing monument to put men in mind that God is to be feared, and that men looking on it may reflect on their insolence, and decline it. So Sennacherib’s tomb-stone with his statue, of which Nahum 1:14.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And 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. The meaning is, that this city and its inhabitants should be stripped of everything that was great and glorious in them, and should be reduced to the utmost shame and ignominy:

and make thee vile: mean, abject, contemptible, the offscouring of all things; rejected and disesteemed of all; had in no manner of repute or account, but in the utmost abhorrence:

and I will set thee as a gazingstock; to be looked and laughed at: or, "for an example" (e); to others, that they may shun the evils and abominations Nineveh had been guilty of, or expect the same disgrace and punishment. Kimchi interprets it "as dung" (f); to be no more reckoned of than that, or to be made a dunghill of; and so many others interpret it; or, "for a looking glass" (g); that others may look into, and take warning, and avoid the sins that have brought on such calamities.

(e) , Sept.; "in exemplum", Drusius, Tarnovius; "sicut spectacalum", Burkius. (f) "Tanquam stercus", Munster, Montanus, Vatablus, Calvin, Cocceius. (g) "Ut speculum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Quistorpius.

Geneva Study Bible

And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. make thee vile] Jeremiah 14:21 disgrace not the throne of thy glory! Deuteronomy 32:15; Micah 7:6. The idea that the word originally meant to cast corpses upon, seems baseless.

a gazing-stock] Ezekiel 28:17-18; Matthew 1:19; 1 Corinthians 4:9.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - The metaphor is continued. Nineveh shall be like a vile woman exposed to the insults and ill treatment of the rabble (comp. Ezekiel 16:37, etc.). A gazing-stock. That all may see thee and take warning. LXX., εἰς παράδειγμα, "for a public example," which recalls Matthew 1:19. Nahum 3:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Lord will plunge Nineveh into shameful misery in consequence. Nahum 3:5. "Behold, I come to thee, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts; and uncover thy skirts over thy face, and let nations see they nakedness, and kingdoms thy shame. Nahum 3:6. And cast horrible things upon thee, and shame thee, and make thee a gazing-stock. Nahum 3:7. And it comes to pass, every one who sees thee will flee before thee, and say, Is Nineveh laid waste? Who will bewail her? whence do I seek comforters for thee?" Nahum 3:5.a as in Nahum 2:13. The punishment of Nineveh will correspond to her conduct. Her coquetry shall be repaid to her by the uncovering of her nakedness before the nations (cf. Jeremiah 13:26; Isaiah 47:3; Hosea 2:5). Gillâh, to uncover. Shūlı̄m, fimbriae, the skirts, borders, or lower end of the long sweeping dress (cf. Exodus 28:33-34; Isaiah 6:1). על פּניך, over thy countenance, so that the train when lifted up is drawn over the face. מער, a contraction of מערה, from ערה, signifies in 1 Kings 7:36 an empty space, here nakedness or shame equivalent to ערוה. This thought is carried out still further in literal terms in Nahum 3:6, Nahum 3:7. Shiqqutsı̄m, objects of abhorrence, is used most frequently of idols; but here it is used in a more general sense for unclean or repulsive things, dirt and filth. Throwing dirt upon any one is a figurative expression for the most ignominious treatment or greatest contempt. Nibbēl, to treat contemptuously, not with words, as in Micah 7:6, but with deeds, equivalent to insult or abuse (cf. Jeremiah 14:21). To make it כּראי, the object of sight, i.e., to give up to open shame, παραδειγματίζειν (Matthew 1:19). ראי, a pausal form of ראי, the seeing, here the spectacle, like θέατρον in 1 Corinthians 4:9. This is evident from Nahum 3:7, where ראיך contains a play upon ראי. Every one who looks at her will flee from her as an object of disgust. שׁדּדה, a rare form of the pual for שׁדּדה (for the fact, compare Jeremiah 48:20). The last two clauses express the thought that no one will take pity upon the devastated city, because its fate is so well deserved; compare Isaiah 51:19, where the same words are used of Jerusalem. Nineveh will not be able to protect herself from destruction even by her great power. The prophet wrests this vain hope away from her by pointing in Isaiah 51:8. to the fall of the mighty Thebes in Egypt.