Bible Strands
Nahum 3:13
Look at your troops—they are like your women! The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire consumes their bars.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Nahum delivers this oracle against Nineveh during a prophetic declaration of imminent siege and collapse. The message addresses the Assyrian capital's leadership and military, contrasting their current vulnerability with their former strength.
The words — The Hebrew פָּתוֹחַ (pa.To.ach) and נִפְתָּחוּ (nif.te.Chu) both derive from the root H6605, literally meaning "to open" or "to be open." The text states the gates are left wide open to the enemy rather than held shut.
The thread — The motif of warriors becoming "like women" appears in Isaiah 19:16 and Jeremiah 50:37 to describe military collapse and terror. Jeremiah 51:30 records Babylonian warriors exhausting their strength and ceasing combat.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that military might cannot prevent divine judgment when defenses are abandoned. It requires the reader to observe how vulnerability replaces strength without offering comfort to the condemned.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 51:30 The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become like women. Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze, the bars of her gates are broken.
- Isaiah 19:16 In that day the Egyptians will be like women. They will tremble with fear beneath the uplifted hand of the LORD of Hosts, when He brandishes it against them.
- Jeremiah 50:37 A sword is against her horses and chariots and against all the foreigners in her midst, and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasuries, and they will be plundered.
- Nahum 2:6 The river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses.
- Isaiah 45:1 This is what the LORD says to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings, to open the doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut:
- Psalms 107:16 For He has broken down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.
- Psalms 147:13 For He strengthens the bars of your gates and blesses the children within you.