There is no assuaging your hurt, your wound is grievous: the picture changes again, and this time the defeat of the king of Nineveh is compared to a fatal wound which cannot be assuaged, or healed. This metaphor, though quite common in the Old Testament (compare Isa 1.5-6; Jer 14.17; 30.12), does not depend on anything specific to Hebrew culture. It will therefore probably be widely understood, and Good News Translation keeps it: “There is no remedy for your injuries, and your wounds cannot be healed.” Many translators will be able to use the same figure, though they may find it helpful to turn the metaphor into a simile and perhaps drop the parallelism. A possible translation model is: “You are like a wounded man, whose injuries no medicine can heal.”
The last part of the verse turns from mocking the king of Assyria to describing the joy that his defeat will bring to other nations: All who hear the news of you clap their hands over you. Good News Translation makes it explicit that the news of you means “the news of your destruction.” Good News Translation also explains the significance of hand clapping: “All those who hear … clap their hands for joy.” This use of clapping the hands to show appreciation or joy is fairly widely understood, but some translators may need to substitute some other actions which carry the same meaning in their culture; for example, “whistle,” “stamp their feet,” or “shout with glee.”
The book ends with a rhetorical question, For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil? Good News Translation keeps the question form but expresses the meaning in more natural English as “Did anyone escape your endless cruelty?” The answer is that none of the smaller states of Western Asia had escaped, and that is why they will all rejoice when they hear of Nineveh’s destruction. In some languages it may be necessary to replace the question by a negative statement and say “No one escaped your endless cruelty.” Evil (Good News Translation “cruelty”) refers to cruel or evil actions by the Assyrians. One may translate “No one escaped from your endless evil actions” or “You did cruel things to people continuously. No one escaped.” In some languages it may be necessary to change the order of clauses in the second half of the verse so as to put the cause before the effect. One may then say “You did cruel things to people continuously. No one escaped. Because of that, those who hear the news that you have been destroyed will clap their hands for joy.”
Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A . A Handbook on the Book of Nahum. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1989. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .