Nahum 3:12
◄  Nahum 3:12  ►
New International Version (©2011)
All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.

New Living Translation (©2007)
All your fortresses will fall. They will be devoured like the ripe figs that fall into the mouths of those who shake the trees.

English Standard Version (©2001)
All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs— if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
All your fortifications are fig trees with ripe fruit-- When shaken, they fall into the eater's mouth.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
All your fortresses are fig trees with figs that ripened first; when shaken, they fall-- right into the mouth of the eater!

International Standard Version (©2012)
All your defenses are like fig trees with ripe early fruit— when shaken, it falls right into the devourer's mouth.

NET Bible (©2006)
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!

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
All your defenses will be like fig trees with the earliest figs. When shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
All your strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs: if they are shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.

American King James Version
All your strong holds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.

American Standard Version
All thy fortresses shall be like fig-trees with the first-ripe figs: if they be shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.

Douay-Rheims Bible
All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with their green figs: if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the eater.

Darby Bible Translation
All thy strongholds are like fig-trees with the first-ripe figs: if they be shaken, they even fall into the mouth of the eater.

English Revised Version
All thy fortresses shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.

Webster's Bible Translation
All thy strong holds shall be like fig-trees with the first ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.

World English Bible
All your fortresses will be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.

Young's Literal Translation
All thy fortresses are fig-trees with first-fruits, If they are shaken, They have fallen into the mouth of the eater.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:8-19 Strong-holds, even the strongest, are no defence against the judgments of God. They shall be unable to do any thing for themselves. The Chaldeans and Medes would devour the land like canker-worms. The Assyrians also would be eaten up by their own numerous hired troops, which seem to be meant by the word rendered merchants. Those that have done evil to their neighbours, will find it come home to them. Nineveh, and many other cities, states, and empires, have been ruined, and should be a warning to us. Are we better, except as there are some true Christians amongst us, who are a greater security, and a stronger defence, than all the advantages of situation or strength? When the Lord shows himself against a people, every thing they trust in must fail, or prove a disadvantage; but he continues good to Israel. He is a strong-hold for every believer in time of trouble, that cannot be stormed or taken; and he knoweth those that trust in Him.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - Shall be like (are) fig trees with the first ripe figs. The Assyrians' fortresses are as ready for destruction and as easy to destroy as ripe figs are ready to fall from the tree at the least shake of the eater (Isaiah 28. S).

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs,.... Upon them, or like them: "and the first ripe figs"; which are easily shook and gathered; and so easily should the fortresses and towers of Nineveh, in which they trusted for safety, be taken by the enemy, not only one, but all of them:

if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater; as such ripe fruit is very desirable, and the mouth of a man is open and ready for them; so if he gives the tree but the least shake, they will fall into his mouth, or about him in great plenty: in like manner, as the fortresses of Nineveh, being of importance, were desirable by the Chaldeans and Medes, and for which they were gaping; so upon the least assault they would fall into their hands; see Revelation 6:13.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. thy strongholds—on the borders of Assyria, protecting the approaches to Nineveh: "the gates of thy land" (Na 3:13).

fig trees with the first ripe figs—expressing the rapidity and ease of the capture of Nineveh (compare Isa 28:4; Re 6:13).

Nahum 3:12 Parallel Commentaries

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Judgment against Nineveh
…11You also shall be drunken: you shall be hid, you also shall seek strength because of the enemy. 12All your strong holds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. 13Behold, your people in the middle of you are women: the gates of your land shall be set wide open to your enemies: the fire shall devour your bars. …

Revelation 6:13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.
Isaiah 28:4 That fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley, will be like figs ripe before harvest-- as soon as people see them and take them in hand, they swallow them.
Jeremiah 24:2 One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early; the other basket had very bad figs, so bad they could not be eaten.