1. Nahum 3:11 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Why will Nineveh be drunken?

Nahum 3:11 (ESV)

11 You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy.

Drunkenness is often used to describe someone who is experiencing the Lord’s judgment. It describes someone who is staggering out of control under the influence of great distress. Nahum has already used this image in speaking of the Lord’s judgment (Nahum 1:10). He is saying the same here. Just as the people of Thebes had staggered like drunk people under the distress of the Assyrian invasion, so now Nineveh would be drunken as the Lord judges them. They will now have to go into hiding to try and escape. They will desperately seek refuge; just like their victims had tried to seek it in the past. The implication here being that they will not find refuge.