Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall?
Nahum asks Nineveh a blunt question: was she safer than the great Egyptian city that already lay in ruins? The verse lists that city's defences — river, water, a wall of sea — and all of them failed.
The City Named in the Verse
The city here is Thebes, and older versions call her "No." One reference work links the names and explains the water around her:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThis is the Scripture name of THEBES, a noted city in Egypt, built on both sides of the river Nile, with a hundred gates... Nahum 3:8-10 points to its position. There 'the sea' means the Nile, and 'the rivers' mean the canals. Instead of 'populous No,' read 'No of Amon,' which refers to the Egyptian god Amon.
Why This Example Stung
Nineveh had not merely heard about Thebes falling. Assyrian armies had been there.
William KellyVerses 8-10 set out, as a warning to Nineveh, the terrible desolation of the famous No-Amon. This was neither Alexandria nor Egypt, but Thebes with its hundred gates. The point was all the sharper because the Assyrians themselves ravaged it, both before the prophet's day and later. In the end Cambyses made her drink the cup of Persian insolence down to the last drop.
A City of Temples
Thebes was a city of temples and tombs. Its ruins are still there to see:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThere was an immense temple there in honour of the god of No. The building had great facades and columns and covered a large space. The ruins that are left are still most wonderful to look at... On the other side of the river was the city of the dead, the Necropolis. It had a long line of temples for the worship of former Pharaohs. Behind these temples were thousands of tombs, and explorers have dug up many of them.
Allies Without Number
Thebes did not stand alone. Other nations backed her, and it changed nothing:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThere was 'no end' to the strength of Ethiopia and Egypt in supporting the city No. Yet it was carried away. In the same way God's judgements would fall on Nineveh.
When Thebes Fell
Commentators differ over which Assyrian king brought Thebes down. One gives a date, and uses it to place Nahum's own lifetime:
Arend RemmersChapter 3:8-10 mentions the destruction of No of Amon (Thebes), capital of Upper Egypt. Ashurbanipal, king of the Assyrians, destroyed it in 663 BC. The Medes under Cyaxares and the Babylonians under Nabopolassar destroyed Nineveh in 612 BC. Nahum's time of work would lie between these two events.
Another credits an earlier king: "Nahum 3:8-10 show that as 'populous No'... had been brought to nothing (probably by Sargon, king of Assyria), so Nineveh would fall" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
The Sin Behind the Question
The question "are you better?" aims straight at pride. One writer sums up what Nineveh stood for:
J. N. DarbyNineveh is the proud glory of the world, which recognises nothing but its own importance. It is the world as the open enemy of God's people, simply through its pride. She shall be judged like all the rest, and disappear for ever under the judgment of the Almighty.
The Answer to the Question
Nahum answers his own question in the verses that follow. Nineveh's defences would prove even flimsier than the water-walls of Thebes:
William KellyFrom verse 11 the prophet addresses Nineveh once more, and declares that she must fare no better... Nineveh should fall even more easily, as verses 12 and 13 tell them. "All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs — if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, your troops are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars."
Summary
- Named — the city is Thebes on the Nile. Older versions call her "populous No"; the better reading is "No of Amon," after the Egyptian god whose temple stood there.
- Walled — her "sea" was the Nile and her "rivers" the canals. Water was her defence, and water did not save her.
- Backed — Ethiopia and Egypt gave her strength with "no end" to it, and she was still carried away.
- Warned — Assyria's own armies had wrecked Thebes, so Nahum pointed Nineveh to a ruin she herself had made.
- Answered — Nineveh, which recognised nothing but its own importance, would fall faster still. Her fortresses would drop like ripe figs at a shake.