Nahum 3:8 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Nahum 3:8
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?
to be (causative) make well · interrogative particle + verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
populous
אָמוֹןʼâmôwn
H527
a throng of people
No
מִנֹּ֣אmi.No'
H4996
No (i.e. Thebes) · preposition + proper noun, a place name
situate
הַיֹּֽשְׁבָה֙hai.yo.she.Vah
H3427
properly · definite article + verb, qal active participle, feminine singular absolute
rivers
בַּיְאֹרִ֔יםbay.'o.Rim
H2975
a channel · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
waters
מַ֖יִםMa.yim
H4325
water · noun, common masculine plural absolute
about
סָבִ֣יבsa.Viv
H5439
(as noun) a circle · noun, common both genders singular absolute
rampart
חֵ֣ילcheil
H2426
an army · noun, common masculine singular construct
sea
יָ֔םYam
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · noun, common masculine singular absolute
wall
חוֹמָתָֽהּcho.ma.Tah
H2346
a wall of protection · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
sea
מִיָּ֖םmi.Yam
H3220
a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Amos 6:2 Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath the great: then go down to Gath of the Philistines: be they better than these…
Ezekiel 30:14-16 And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments in No.
Isaiah 19:5-10 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.
Jeremiah 46:25-26 The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their k…
Ezekiel 31:2-3 Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Nahum 3:8–end
Nineveh has been told that God is against her, and then none can be for her, to stand her in any stead; yet she sets God himself at defiance, and his power and justice, and says, I shall have peace. Threatened folks live long; therefore here the prophet largely shows how vain her confidences would prove and insufficient to ward off the judgment of God. To convince them of this,
I. He shows them that other places, which had been as strong and as secure as they, could not keep their ground against the judgments of God. Nineveh shall fall unpitied and uncomforted (for miserable comforters will those prove who speak peace to those on whom God will fasten trouble), and she shall not be able to he…
populous No--rather, as Hebrew, "No-ammon," the Egyptian name for Thebes in Upper Egypt; meaning the portion or possession of Ammon, the Egyptian Jupiter (whence the Greeks called the city Diospolis), who was especially worshipped there. The Egyptian inscriptions call the god Amon-re, that is, Amon the Sun; he is represented as a human figure with a ram's head, seated on a chair (Jer 46:25; Eze 30:14-16). The blow inflicted on No-ammon, described in Nah 3:10, was probably by the Assyrian Sargon (see on Isa 18:1; Isa 20:1). As Thebes, with all her resources, was overcome by Assyria, so Assyrian Nineveh, notwithstanding all her might, in her turn, shall be overcome by Babylon. English Version,…
Art thou better than populous No - No-Ammon, or Diospolis, in the Delta, on one branch of the Nile. This is supposed to be the city mentioned by Nahum; and which had been lately destroyed, probably by the Chaldeans.
The waters round about it - Being situated in the Delta, it had the fork of two branches of the Nile to defend it by land; and its barrier or wall was the sea, the Mediterranean, into which these branches emptied themselves: so that this city, and the place it stood on, were wholly surrounded by the waters.
The Church Fathers
(Verse 8 and following) Are you better than Amon ((Vulgate: Alexandria of the nations)), who lived by the rivers? Her water was like a sea, her walls were like fortifications, Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and there was no end to her wealth; Africa and Libya were her allies. But she too was led into captivity, her young children were dashed to pieces at every street corner, her nobles were cast lots upon, and all her dignitaries were bound in chains. And so you will be intoxicated and despised; and you will seek your help from your enemies, all your fortresses like fig trees with their ripe fruit, if they are shaken, will fall into the mouth of the eater. LXX: Aptly did Ammon, who dwells in rivers, water surrounding it, whose beginning is the sea, and its water is a wall. Ethiopia is its strength and Egypt, and there is no end to your flight. Put and the Libyans have become its helpers, and it itself will go into exile, and its little ones will be dashed to pieces at the head of its roads, and they will cast lots over all its noble men, and all its princes will be bound in fetters; and you will be intoxicated and despised, and you will seek there to stand against your enemies; all your fortresses, like fig trees with ripe fruit, if they are shaken, will fall into the mouth of the eater. Because in the Septuagint it is read, Apta chordam, the part of Ammon; and the other interpreters have translated: Are you better than Amon? The Hebrew scholar who instructed me in the Scriptures asserted that it could be read as: Are you better than No, Amon? And he said, in Hebrew No is called Alexandria: but Amon means multitude, or peoples, and is the order of reading: Are you better than populous Alexandria, or the peoples that dwell by its rivers, with water surrounding it? Not because at that time it was called Alexandria, since it received its name long after Alexander the Great, the Macedonian; but because under its first name, that is, No, it was always the metropolis of Egypt and exceedingly populated. Finally, even those who recorded the deeds of Alexander believe that it was the chief city of Egypt. Moreover, the prophet Jeremiah, understanding by Amon or No Alexandria in his vision against Egypt, to which he says: Beautiful heifer Egypt, a destroyer comes from the north to her (Jer. 46:20), also adds more clearly: The daughter of Egypt is put to shame,…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Amon — Builder. (1.) The governor of Samaria in the time of Ahab. The prophet Micaiah was committed to his custody (1 Kings 22:26; 2 Chr. 18:25). (2.) The son of Manasseh, and fourteenth king of Judah. He…
Amon, Or Amen — (the mysterious), an Egyptian divinity, whose name occurs in that of No-amon. (Nahum 3:8) Amen was one of the eight gods of the first order and chief of the triad of Thebes. He was worshipped at that…
Ethiopia — Country of burnt faces; the Greek word by which the Hebrew Cush is rendered (Gen. 2:13; 2 Kings 19:9; Esther 1:1; Job 28:19; Ps. 68:31; 87:4), a country which lay to the south of Egypt, beginning at…
Herdsman — In Egypt herdsmen were probably of the lowest caste. Some of Joseph’s brethren were made rulers over Pharaoh’s cattle (Gen. 47:6, 17). The Israelites were known in Egypt as “keepers of cattle;” and…
No — Or No-A’mon, the home of Amon, the name of Thebes, the ancient capital of what is called the Middle Empire, in Upper or Southern Egypt. “The multitude of No” (Jer. 46:25) is more correctly rendered,…
No-Amon — (temple of Amon) (Nahum 3:8) No, (Jeremiah 46:25; Ezekiel 30:14,16) a city of Egypt, better known under the name of Thebes or Diospolis Magna, the ancient and splendid metropolis of upper Egypt The…
Prophecy — Or prediction, was one of the functions of the prophet. It has been defined as a “miracle of knowledge, a declaration or description or representation of something future, beyond the power of human…
Thebes — (Authorized Version No, the multitude of No. populous No), a chief cite of ancient Egypt, long the capital of the upper country, and the seat of the Diospolitan dynasties, that ruled over all Egypt…
Cities · Densely inhabited — Densely inhabited
Sea, The · Commercial nations: Often built cities on the borders of — Commercial nations: Often built cities on the borders of
John Gill on Nahum 3:8
Art thou better than populous No,.... Or No Amon, a city in Egypt so called, not because the kings of Egypt were nursed and brought up there, as Jarchi and Abarbinel; see Proverbs 8:30 but from Ham the son of Noah, whose land Egypt was; or from Jupiter Ammon, worshipped there. No Amon signifies the mansion or palace of Ham, or Hamon; the Egyptians, as Herodotus says (h), call Jupiter by the name of Ammon. The Targum interprets it of Alexandria the great, a city so called long after this, when it was rebuilt by Alexander the great; so Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, understand it: others take Diospolis or Thebes to be meant, famous in Homer (i) for its hundred gates; though some think this wa…
Nahum 3:8-10
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?
8. An melior es quam No (id est, Alexandria,) Amon (vertunt quidam, populosum; alii putant esse nomen Regis; an igitur melior es quam Alexandria populosa,) quae habitabat in fluviis? Mare in circuitu ejus, cujus fossa erat mare, et a mari murus ejus;
9. Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers.
9. Aethiopia fortitudo ejus et Aegyptus; et nullus finis; Aphrica et Libyae fuerunt in auxilium ejus
10. Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young child…
Nineveh will share the fate of No-Ammon. - Nah 3:8. "Art thou better than No-amon, that sat by rivers, waters round about her, whose bulwark was the sea, her wall of sea? Nah 3:9. Ethiopians and Egyptians were (her) strong men, there is no end; Phut and Libyans were for thy help. Nah 3:10. She also has gone to transportation, into captivity; her children were also dashed in pieces at the corners of all roads; upon her nobles they cast the lot, and all her great men were bound in chains." התיטבי for התיטבי, for the sake of euphony, the imperfect kal of יטב, to be good, used to denote prosperity in Gen 12:13 and Gen 40:14, is applied here to the prosperous condition of the city, which was rend…
Thebes, the historic capital of Egypt, was situated on both sides of the Nile in Upper Egypt. It achieved its greatest fame as the political, religious, and cultural center of Egypt’s great New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC). Though no longer Egypt’s capital in the 600s BC, the city was still a thriving metropolis.
Rashi on Nahum 3:8
Are you better than No-amon—Why should you rely on your wealth and your might? Are you greater than No-amon? That is, Alexandria of Egypt. Amon is an expression of a pedagogue. [Are you greater] than the great No, which trained the kings of Egypt, for they would anoint the kings there?
whose wall was the sea to whom the sea was their rampart and their wall. [This mode of construction is known in Aramaic as] שורה ובר שורה, a wall and the son of a wall [referring to a large wall on the outside, opposite an inside of which is built a small wall].
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
