1. Nahum 3:4 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

In what way did Nineveh betray nations?

Nahum 3:4 (ESV)

4 And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms.

The main point of comparing Nineveh to a prostitute is that she gives her services out for hire. She was out for personal gain, and her deadly charms and sorcery are the devices she used to lure other nations in before betraying them with cruel exploitation.1 Nineveh sought wealth and domination by illegitimate means: she bartered in human lives.2

The way in which the graphic vision of the Lord’s coming judgment in Nahum 3:2–3 suddenly interrupts the description and source of Nineveh’s wickedness in Nahum 3:1 and Nahum 3:4 only serves to emphasize how deserved and severe the Lord’s judgment is going to be.