Nahum 3:8-10

Contemporary English Version

Nineveh's Fate Is Sealed

⁸Nineveh, do you feel safer
    than the city of Thebes?^[a]
The Nile River
    was its wall of defense.^[b]
⁹Thebes trusted the mighty power
    of Ethiopia^[c] and Egypt;
the nations of Put^[d] and Libya
    were her allies.
¹⁰But she was captured and taken
    to a foreign country.
Her children were murdered
    at every street corner.
The members of her royal family
    were auctioned off,
and her high officials
    were bound in chains.

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Footnotes

3.8 Thebes: In 663 b.c., the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal captured this Egyptian city, which seems to have been built with protection similar to that of Nineveh.
3.8 was its … defense: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
3.9 Ethiopia: The Hebrew text has “Cush,” which was a region south of Egypt that included parts of the present countries of Ethiopia and Sudan.
3.9 Put: A region in Africa, possibly part of the present country of Libya.