Nahum 3:19

There is no healing for your injury; your wound is severe. All who hear the news of you applaud your downfall, for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The prophet addresses the fallen king of Assyria immediately after describing his scattered people and sleeping leaders. The declaration pronounces final judgment on the city that has long practiced cruelty.

The words — אֵין־כֵּהָה (ʾên kehāh) literally means "there is no relief" and directly modifies לְשִׁבְרֶךָ ("for your fracture"). The phrase נַחְלָה (nachlah), meaning "[is] severe," is paired with מַכָּתֶךָ ("your wound").

The thread — Incurable injury and public scorn recur when Micah 1:9 describes a wound that has reached Judah, while Lamentations 2:15 and Job 27:23 depict onlookers clapping and hissing at the downfall of the proud.

Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that oppressive regimes face irreversible collapse and public reckoning. It requires the reader to recognize divine justice as the direct counterweight to unrepentant cruelty.

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

אֵין־'ein-there not כֵּהָ֣הke.Hah[is] relief לְשִׁבְרֶ֔ךָle./shiv.Re./khafor/ fracture/ your נַחְלָ֖הnach.Lah[is] severe מַכָּתֶ֑ךָma.ka.Te./khawound/ your כֹּ֣ל׀kolall שֹׁמְעֵ֣יsho.me.'Ei[those who] hear שִׁמְעֲךָ֗shim.'a./Kha<of> report/ your תָּ֤קְעוּTa.ke.'uthey strike כַף֙khafa palm עָלֶ֔יךָ'a.Lei./khaon/ you כִּ֗יKifor עַל־'al-over מִ֛יmiwhom?לֹֽא־lo'-not עָבְרָ֥ה'a.ve.Rahhas it passed רָעָתְךָ֖ra.'a.te./Khaevil/ your תָּמִֽיד׃ta.Midcontinually

King James Version

There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?

Cross-references

Micah 1:9 For her wound is incurable; it has reached even Judah; it has approached the gate of my people, as far as Jerusalem itself.
Lamentations 2:15 All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”
Job 27:23 It claps its hands at him and hisses him out of his place.
Isaiah 37:18 Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all these countries and their lands.
Jeremiah 46:11 Go up to Gilead for balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain you try many remedies, but for you there is no healing.
Isaiah 10:6 I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
Isaiah 14:8 Even the cypresses and cedars of Lebanon exult over you: “Since you have been laid low, no woodcutter comes against us.”
Jeremiah 10:22 Listen! The sound of a report is coming—a great commotion from the land to the north. It will make the cities of Judah a desolation, a haunt for jackals.
Jeremiah 30:13 There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sores, no recovery for you.
Ezekiel 25:6 For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you clapped your hands and stomped your feet and rejoiced over the land of Israel with a heart full of contempt,