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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Nahum 3:1 - 3:1
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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. Nah 3:1. “Woe to the city of blood! She all full of deceit and murder; the prey departs not.†‛Ir daÌ‚mı̄m, 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 מְלֵ×ָה. 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 (Psa 7:3). ×œÖ¹× ×™Ö¸×žÖ´×™×©×, the prey does not depart, never fails. MuÌ„sh: in the hiphil here, used intransitively, “to depart,†as in Exo 13:22; Psa 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 taÌ‚mı̄sh.