What Does Nahum 3:14 Mean?
Draw waters for the siege, grip your walled cities, go into the clay, tread the mortar, and grip the brick mold.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln.THE KEY
The commands to fortify the strongholds and make the brickkiln strong repeat the same Hebrew root, so defense reaches from the city’s boundary to the material it builds with.
THE MEANING
You stand inside a siege: draw water, strengthen the fortresses, tread clay into mortar, and strengthen the brickkiln. The same verb reaches from the fortresses to the means of construction, making defense a demand on every layer of the city. The words carry urgency without promising that the work can stop what is coming.
THE ROOT
חַזְּקִי
ḥazzəqî
GROWS FROM
חזק
Be strong; strengthen; hold fast.
“grip your walled cities” in this verse is ḥazzəqî. Both commands come from חזק: the first is directed toward the strongholds, the second toward the brickkiln. The root also carries the sense of taking hold, so the separate English words hide one effort to hold the city together under pressure.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāzāq: Strong, firm.
חָזָק
This adjective names the state the command seeks for the fortresses.
heḥĕzîq: Strengthen, take hold, hold fast.
הֶחֱזִיק
This form echoes the command to strengthen the brickkiln, extending the same root from the defenses to the work of construction.
THE PATTERN
Under threat, people reinforce structures and prepare for survival, yet human construction cannot guarantee that the boundary will hold.
A Song of degrees for Solomon. Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders toil in emptiness. Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in emptiness.The horse is readied for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the LORD.And the rain came down, and the rivers came, and the winds breathed and fell against that house, and it fell, and great was its fall.THE THREAD
The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of the narrow place, and he perceives those who take shelter in him.The same book that directs you to strengthen your strongholds names the LORD as a strong hold in trouble. The echo shifts attention from how much you can reinforce to what holds you when pressure arrives.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us