Nahum 3:1–7, with its terse, powerful phrases, depicts Nineveh in a typical battle, overwhelming yet another hapless victim. The woe is here a divine denunciation and pronouncement of judgment (3:1–4). Verse 1 masterfully depicts both the character of Nineveh and the source of its prosperity and greatness. It was built on bloodshed and deceit and can maintain itself and continue to grow only by ruthlessly devouring other cities and kingdoms. Its appetite for blood and plunder is insatiable. Nineveh was a great and powerful city, proud of its achievements. But now God gives his assessment.

The graphic, staccato phrases of verses 1–3 evoke the image of a ruthless, grinding military machine. Nineveh’s means of empire building by the brutal subjugation and plundering of other cities is liken…