Texts in Conversation
In the Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon, an Assyrian king asks the gods to make an oath-breaker like a woman in front of his enemy. Nahum 3 echoes a similar tradition, calling the warriors of Nineveh, Assyria's capital, women as its gates open to the enemy.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
The Vassal Treaties of Esarhaddon §§90–93
Esarhaddon's Succession Treaty (SAA 2 6)
Ancient Near East, Assyrian
612A ([If you should sin against] this [treaty] of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, [and of] his sons and grandsons,) ditto; just as this chariot is drenched with blood up to its base-board, so may your chariots be drenched with your own blood in the midst of your enemy. 616A May all the gods who are called by name in this treaty tablet spin you around like a spindle-whorl, may they make you like a woman before your enemy. 618A May all the gods who are mentioned by name in this treaty tablet make you, your brothers, your sons, and your daughters go backward like a crab. 621 May they make evil and wicked things surround you like fire.
Nahum 3:13
Hebrew Bible
11 You too will act like drunkards; you will go into hiding; you too will seek refuge from the enemy. 12 All your fortifications will be like fig trees with first-ripe fruit: If they are shaken, their figs will fall into the mouth of the eater. 13 Your warriors will be like women in your midst; the gates of your land will be wide open to your enemies; fire will consume the bars of your gates. 14 Draw yourselves water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Trample the mud and tread the clay! Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls! 15 There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down; it will devour you like the young locust would. Multiply yourself like the young locust; multiply yourself like the flying locust!
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Notes and References
“... 3:13. The inevitability of Nineveh's collapse is visible in its lack of preparedness to engage the enemy. This verse describes Nineveh's troops as "women" incapable of repelling the invaders. This conventional censure (cf. 2 Sam. 3:29; Isa. 19:16; Jer. 50:37; 51:30) is also attested in the Assyrian king Esarhaddon's succession treaty: "May all the gods who are called by name in this treaty tablet spin you around like a spindle-whorl, may they make you like a woman before your enemy" (Haddox 2006: 188–9). In feminist exegesis, the prophet's image of effeminate troops has been called "one of the most insulting threats or curses that could be made" (Sanderson 2000b: 353), and the gates flung wide open may intimate sexual violation (O'Brien 2004: 53). ...”
Han, Jin H.
"Nahum" in Coggins, Richard, and Jin H. Han (eds.) Six Minor Prophets through the Centuries: Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi
(p. 33) Wiley-Blackwell, 2011
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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