Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament · Nahum Chapter 3

The city of blood will have the shame, which it has inflicted upon the nations, repaid to it by a terrible massacre. The prophet announces this with the woe which opens the last section of this threatening prophecy. Nahum 3:1. “Woe to the city of blood! She all full of deceit and murder; the prey departs not.” ‛Ir dâmı̄m , city of drops of blood, i.e., of blood shed, or of murders. This predicate is explained in the following clauses: she all full of lying and murder. Cachash and pereq are asyndeton, and accusatives dependent upon מלאה . Cachash , lying and deceit: this is correctly explained by Abarbanel and Strauss as referring to the fact that “she deceived the nations with vain promises of help and protection.” Pereq , tearing in pieces for murder, - a figure taken from the lion, which tears its prey in pieces (Psalms 7:3). לא ימישׁ , the prey does not depart, never fails. Mūsh : in the hiphil here, used intransitively, “to depart,” as in Exodus 13:22; Psalms 55:12, and not in a transitive sense, “to cause to depart,” to let go; for if ‛ı̄r (the city) were the subject, we should have tâmı̄sh .

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