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General Information:
Nahum speaks to the people of Nineveh as though they were the city itself. (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metonymy)
are you better than Thebes ... itself?
Nahum asks this rhetorical question to emphasize the negative answer that it anticipates. Alternate translation: "you are not better than Thebes ... itself." (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-rquestion)
Thebes
This was the former capital of Egypt, which the Assyrians had conquered. (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/translate-names)
that was built on the Nile River
"that was situated by the Nile River"
whose defense was the ocean, whose wall was the sea itself
These two phrases share similar meanings. The words "ocean" and "sea" both refer to the Nile River, which ran near the city. Nahum speaks of the Nile as if it were the wall that protected the city. Alternate translation: "which had the Nile river as its defenses, as some cities have a wall for theirs" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor and rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-parallelism)