Nahum 3:1-6

v. 1-6 "Woe to the city of blood,
full of lies,
full of plunder,
never without victims!
The crack of whips,
the clatter of wheels,
galloping horses
and jolting chariots!
Charging cavalry,
flashing swords
and glittering spears!
Many casualties,
piles of dead,
bodies without number,
people stumbling over the corpses-
all because of the wanton lust of a harlot,
alluring, the mistress of sorceries,
who enslaved nations by her prostitution
and peoples by her witchcraft.

'I am against you,' declares the Lord Almighty.
'I will lift your skirts over your face.
I will show the nations your nakedness
and the kingdoms your shame.
I will pelt you with filth,
I will treat you with contempt
and make you a spectacle.'"

OK, I have been away from this for awhile.  I guess doing Jonah and Nahum back to back made me burned out on the evil of it all.  

The city of blood seems to be a fitting name.  This is a war bulletin from the Assyrians which was during this time frame.

"I destroyed, I demolished, I burned.  I took their warriors prisoner and impaled them on stakes before their cities. ...flayed the nobles, as many as had rebelled, and spread their skins out on the piles [of dead corpses] ... many of the captives I burned in a fire.  Many I took alive; from some I cut off their hands to the write, from other I cut off their noses, ears and fingers; I put out the eyes of many of the soldiers."

"I slew two hundred and sixty fighting men; I cut off their heads and made pyramids thereof.  I slew one of every two.  I built a wall before the great gates of the city; I flayed the chief men of the rebels, and I covered the wall with their skins.  Some of them were enclosed alive in the bricks of the wall, some of them were crucified on stakes along the wall; I caused a great multitude of them to be flayed in my presence, and I covered the wall with their skins.  I gathered together the heads in the form of  crowns, and their pierced bodies in the form of garlands."  (TimeFrame 1500-600 BC by Time Life Books) Assyrian War Bulletin

The "bodies without number" is hard to imagine.  The closest that I can think of would be all the people killed in World War II.  The National WW II Museum in New Orleans, LA estimates that 50 million people died during the war from 40 different countries.  It is extremely difficult to grasp the enormity of what happened.

OK, right now I would like to be working on one of those cute DIY, cooking or crafting blogs.  Although this is what I do, so back to the solemn task at hand.

Several times sin is represented as female in the Bible, this does not mean that God hates women.  Wisdom is represented as a woman (Proverbs 1:20-21).  I can't imagine how many times in history that women have been labeled as wicked sinners and held to a different standard than men and suffered greatly because of it.  I think that the lure of Nineveh was great to other countries, they were very powerful and wealthy.  Seduction is usually referenced as female, this shows that there must have been a strong pull towards Nineveh.  Strong's Concordance says that "your skirts" is a masculine noun.  Remember everyone wore robes back then.  This would have targeted their honor and pride.

"Beautiful and impressive on the outside, Nineveh was vicious and deceitful on the inside.  Beneath attractive facades sometimes lie seduction and death."  NIV notes