Nahum 3:12-19

v. 12-19 "All your fortresses are like fig trees
with their first ripe fruit;
when they are shaken,
the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.
Look at your troops-
they are all women!
The gates of your land
are wide open to your enemies;
fire has consumed their bars.

Draw water for the siege,
strengthen your defenses!
Work the clay,
tread the mortar,
repair the brickwork!
There the fire will devour you;
the sword will cut you down 
and, like grasshoppers, consume you.
Multiply like grasshoppers,
multiply like locusts!
You have increased the number of your merchants 
till they are more than the stars of the sky,
but like locusts they strip the land
and then fly away.
Your guards are like locusts,
your officials like swarms of locusts
that settle in the walls on a cold day-
but when the sun appears they fly away,
and no one knows where.
O king of Assyria, your shepherds slumber,
your nobles lie down to rest.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with no one to gather them.
Nothing can heal your wound;
your injury is fatal.
Everyone who hears the news about you 
claps his hands at your fall,
for who has not felt
your endless cruelty?"

Nahum must have known that this would challenge the pride of King Ashurbanipal.  To think you are a great king and be insulted in this way could drive someone crazy and be seething with anger.  God is showing that their defenses are insignificant.  Even calling his troops women.  Back in ancient times women were not fighters, they were wives, mothers, caregivers, they had no power during this time.

For them to fortify their defenses was useless.  Not only did they get insulted as women, but they were compared to locusts.  When the heat turns up they flee and will not stay and fight.  Their injury is fatal.  Nineveh was conquered around 50 years after this prophecy.  The Iraq Christians who lived in Mosul have been driven to the east in the last year or so, to the Nineveh Plain.    That is where the city of Nineveh was found around 1845.

The Bible is full of stories that we can learn from.  I heard someone call the Bible a library.  It's more than just a book, it spans a large amount of time with different writers and many different types of writing, all for the glory of God.

All nations hated Assyria and their cruel treatment of others so they probably were happy when the city fell.  Although there always seems to be another country just as evil that takes it's place.  Assyria in now Syria.  I think how this parallels current day events.  A dictator is in charge who has been killing his own people, there is no excuse for this cruel treatment of men, women and children.  I pray for those who have lost loved ones and for protection for the civilian population.

How you treat your poor, powerless and those who don't agree with you shows your true character.