² tn Heb “Nineveh, the great city.”

⁵ tn Heb “to her wall,” referring to Nineveh.

⁵ tn Heb “Nineveh, the great city.” The description “the great city” stands in apposition to “Nineveh.”

³ sn The descendants of Arphaxad may have lived northeast of Nineveh.

⁵ sn Calah (modern Nimrud) was located 20 miles north of Nineveh.

¹ sn Ironically, Sennacherib had recently planted fig trees along all the major avenues in Nineveh to help beautify the city, and had encouraged the citizens of Nineveh to eat from these fruit trees. How appropriate that Nineveh’s defenses would now be compared to fig trees whose fruit would be eaten by its enemies.

⁵ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the people of Nineveh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹ tn The term “Nineveh” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied from context.

² tn The phrase “bloody city” is used of Nineveh in Nah 3:1.

¹ tn Heb “and Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and lived in Nineveh.”

¹ tn Heb “and Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went and returned and lived in Nineveh.”

¹ tn Heb “and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; it [i.e., Calah] is the great city.”

³ sn Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city situated on the Tigris River.

² sn Nineveh was like a pool of water. This is an appropriate simile because Nineveh was famous for its artificial pools, many of which serviced the royal gardens. Two rivers also flowed through the city: the Tebiltu and the Khoser.

² tn The word “Nineveh” does not occur in the text but has been added to clarify who is being addressed.

¹ tn Heb “has commanded concerning you.” The referent of the second person masculine singular suffix (“you”) probably refers to the Assyrian king (cf. 3:18-19) rather than to the personified city of Nineveh (so NIV). Elsewhere in the book of Nahum, the city of Nineveh is referred to by the feminine rather than masculine gender. Some modern English versions supply terms not in the Hebrew text to indicate the addressee more clearly: NIV “Nineveh”; NLT “the Assyrians in Nineveh.”

⁷ tn Heb “it.” The pronoun functions as a synecdoche of container for contents, referring to the people of Nineveh.

⁴ sn The name Rehoboth Ir means “and broad streets of a city,” perhaps referring to a suburb of Nineveh.

³ sn Apparently Jonah hoped that he might have persuaded the Lord to “change his mind” again (see 3:8-10) and to judge Nineveh after all.

¹ tn Heb “Yet 40 days and Nineveh will be overthrown!” The adverbial use of עוֹד (ʿod, “yet”) denotes limited temporal continuation (BDB 728 s.v. עוֹד 1.a; Gen 29:7; Isa 10:32). Tg. Jonah 3:4 rendered it as, “at the end of [forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown].”