Yahweh Confronts the Bloody City: Chapters 1 and 2 only hinted at the reasons for Yahweh’s anger, but the opening and close of chapter 3 are more concrete. Here Yahweh speaks all through the chapter. Yahweh confronts the city because it is responsible for the deaths of so many people as a result of its desire to accumulate wealth, which has led it into empire-building and war-making. Its apparent strength will not save it.

3:1–4  Woe is an over-translation; the Hebrew hoy resembles English “Oh,” which we can use in many contexts with many connotations. One context for hoy is mourning (e.g., Jer. 22:18, where NIV translates “alas”), and there is a sense in which that would be appropriate here as Nahum is announcing the death of a city—though the expression of grief would then be somewhat iro…