Nahum 3:1

Bloody city. That is, a place where blood was shed freely and apparently without any qualms of conscience (see Eze. 24:6, 9; Hab. 2:12). The Assyrian monuments abundantly depict how captives were flayed, decapitated, impaled alive, or hanged by hands and feet to die in slow torture. These and other inhuman practices reveal the cruelty of this nation. Their royal inscriptions continually exult over the number of enemies killed, captives carried off, cities razed and plundered, lands wasted, and fruit trees destroyed.

Robbery. Heb. pereq, “an act of violence,” denoting the violence of the Assyrians in dealing with conquered peoples. The closing clause of v. 1 indicates that this plundering of its victims by the rulers of Nineveh never ceased (see Isa. 33:1).