Nahum 3:11
“Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Nineveh too will stagger as if drunk, go into hiding, and desperately seek refuge from her enemies.
What Does Nahum 3:11 Mean?
Having held up Thebes as a warning, the prophet turns the lesson directly on Nineveh: you also. She too will be made drunk, staggering and senseless under the blow of judgment, the cup of wrath put to her own lips. She will seek to hide and will search frantically for strength and refuge because of the advancing enemy. The proud predator of chapter two is now the one cowering and seeking a place to flee. The reversal could not be more complete.
Drunkenness is a frequent biblical image for the disorientation that overtakes those under God's judgment, leaving them unable to stand or think clearly. Nineveh, which made others reel, now reels herself. The desperate search for refuge is especially poignant, for the city that gave no shelter to its victims now finds none for itself. The verse quietly underlines the truth running through the whole book: there is a refuge that holds in the day of trouble, but it is found only in the Lord. Those who refuse Him are left, in the end, to seek a strength that is nowhere to be found.