Chapter 3

Verses 1-3 seem to be a continuation of the description of the fall itself.  But this very interesting verse, giving the reason for the fall, seems to tie right in with the description of Babylon's fall in Revelation:

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. [Nah 3:4 ESV]

3 For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living." [Rev 18:3 ESV]

A pretty undeniable parallel.  Also a good argument that Rev. 18 is about the destruction of a place on the planet, and not necessarily about the destruction of a greedy, immoral world system.  Greed and immorality reside in people, not in places.

2024 - Or...is the prostitute the replacement of the idolatry that came before?  Do we no longer worship idols of wood, stone, gold and silver, but we worship the gold and the silver!  We dedicate our lives not to sacrificing to mute idols but we give up everything, even family, for acquisition of power and wealth.  The combination of those too is almost irresistible.  Just look at what happens to US Congressmen and Senators.  They get richer and more powerful as they remain in Congress.  The temptation to be bribed for your power and influence must be tremendous.  Is that it?  Babylon is representative government, giving to many the power previously reserved to Kings?  Such that the corruption knows no bounds?  A king can only be so corrupt, but a whole government?  Tens of thousands of corrupt representative - both elected and appointed - all bent on enriching themselves at the expense of the people?  Is this not what was going on in Samaria and in Jerusalem before they fell?  No limit to evil, no good men to counter it?  If so, then Babylon, the seat of such power, would be both a system and a place.  Makes sense that it might be the capitol city of the MoL, and the seat of a corrupt government concentrating the wealth of the planet into the hands of so very few favorites of the MoL as he rules.  And all the world trying to curry favor with those, enriching themselves by network with those.  And where is this capitol city?  We get an idea from the description of the Valley of Jehoshaphat back in Joel/Micah.  Or do we not...

2024 - Went back and checked my notes there.  I changed from unconfused to confused. 

2024 - This map from https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/map-of-the-babylonian-empire-under-king-nebukhadnetzar

Babylon...maybe the Kings of the East come from there.  Maybe old Babylon is where the MoL sets up his kingdom.  Then he marches over the plain of the world to the camp and the city - to Megiddo and Jerusalem.  Megiddo is WSW of the Sea of Galilee, between there and the Med.  If you march around the horn in this map, it is pretty much on the way.  At the scale of this map, the two places are quite close together.

Yeah, in 2024 what seemed to be clearing up faded right back out.  I need to spend more time with Micah, Joel and now Nahum.  I think they all bear on this question of which battle is referenced in what verses.  There ARE two battles.  One before the Millennial, when Jesus comes on his white horse.  And one when Satan is released at the end of the thousand years.  There ought to be a "timeline" that tells us which of these concerns the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

But I am letting it go for today.

vss 5-7 continue to recount the fall of Ninevah.  She is to be shamed before the nations, her nakedness exposed.  vs 6...:

6 I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle. [Nah 3:6 ESV]

Game of Thrones, when Cerci had to walk the walk.  Shamed, held in contempt, a spectacle.  Is this where they got that?

Nineveh's fall compared to the fall of Thebes.  I don't know that story.  MSB says Thebes was conquered by the King of Ninevah - by Assyria, though it was surrounded by strong cities, and by natural barriers of water.  If it fell, with the same kind of defenses as Ninevah, why did they not see it coming?  MSB says there are three charges made against Ninevah in this chapter.

1.  vs 1-3, Assyria was an unusually cruel and bloodthirsty nation.

2.  vs 4-7, Spiritual and moral harlotry

3.  vs 8-19, They had not learned from Thebes

Verse 19 sums up Nineveh's end:

19 There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil? [Nah 3:19 ESV]

Again, the similarity to Babylon in Revelation is striking.  Such a "great" city is fallen, and the world is happy about it. 

2022 - This seems today to be more about the collapse of Assyria than to be specifically about Ninevah.  The similarity to Babylon, and perhaps a key to understanding the Babylon of Revelation, is in the violence and sinfulness that Assyria perpetrated on the world.  It is there in that last verse:  "upon whom has not come your unceasing evil".  This most certainly corresponds to the descriptions of Babylon in Revelation. A nation of takers.  Unmerciful.  Brutally efficient, perhaps like Germany, using up the non-Germans for their own ends, with no pity, no mercy, no care for the fate of any others.  Single-mindedly self-serving, with individuals only servants of the state.  Maybe that is what it is all about.  A nation that is itself more important than any citizen.  Where men are subservient and the state is supreme.  Now isn't that a thought!  (SOCIALISM)

2023 - https://www.dailyhistory.org/How_Did_the_Ancient_City_of_Nineveh_Fall

This links to a pretty interesting history of and a recounting of the fall, of Ninevah.  They were a brutal conqueror.