The scatterer has come up against you.
Man the ramparts;
watch the road;
dress for battle;
collect all your strength.
2 For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob
as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
and ruined their branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is red;
his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
on the day he musters them;
the cypress spears are brandished.
4 The chariots race madly through the streets;
they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
they dart like lightning.
5 He remembers his officers;
they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
the siege tower is set up.
6 The river gates are opened;
the palace melts away;
7 its mistress is stripped; she is carried off,
her slave girls lamenting,
moaning like doves
and beating their breasts.
8 Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters run away.
“Halt! Halt!” they cry,
but none turns back.
9 Plunder the silver,
plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
or of the wealth of all precious things.
10 Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
Hearts melt and knees tremble;
anguish is in all loins;
all faces grow pale!
11 Where is the lions' den,
the feeding place of the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
where his cubs were, with none to disturb?
12 The lion tore enough for his cubs
and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.
13 Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard. Nahum 2 ESV
Nahum 2
The scatterer has come up against you - The Babylonians were coming for Nineveh, the head of the great statue from Daniel, the kingdom of gold.
For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob - God uses one oppressor against another, relief from Assyria will come by way of Babylon, yet she too will answer the fullness of Judah's cup. Assyria had plundered and will receive like. Regardless of the face you see at the gate of your wall, know that nothing comes that the Lord has not sovereignly ordained.
The shield of his mighty men is red - Nahum goes into a vision of the battle. The soldiers are clothed in scarlet, probably the picture of a bloody battle.
The chariots race madly - Distress, confusion, urgency. They are usually the raiding party, and Nineveh is a strong outer and inner wall, but here the predator has become the prey. Now they look down upon a sea of red, before the battle has even taken place they know what the conqueror is promising to bring.
The chariots of war shall be very terrible (v. 4): They shall rage in the streets, that is, those that drive them shall rage; you would think the chariots themselves raged; they shall be so numerous, and drive with so much fury, that even in the broad ways, where, one would think, there should be room enough, they shall jostle one another; and these iron chariots shall be made so bright that in the beams of the sun they shall seem like torches in the night; they shall run like the lightnings, so swiftly, so furiously. Nebuchadnezzar's commanders are here called his worthies, his gallants (so the margin reads it), his heroes; those he shall recount, and order them immediately and without fail to render themselves at their respective posts, for he is entering upon action, is resolved to take the field immediately, and to open the campaign with the siege of Nineveh. - Matthew Henry
She is carried off - They take away the queen, someone who knows little of the suffering, disconnected from reality, as a beneficiary of her countries own brutality to others. Now Assyria, yes you, Assyria, are the one led off in shackles, are the one whose buttocks feel the scorn of the sun, as you are paraded before your captors.
Moaning like doves -
…15The sword is outside; plague and famine are within. Those in the country will die by the sword, and those in the city will be devoured by famine and plague. 16The survivors will escape and live in the mountains, moaning like doves of the valley, each for his own iniquity. 17Every hand will go limp, and every knee will turn to water.… Ezekiel 7: 15-17
Hearts melt and knees tremble - When what we feared most, or that which we thought could never happen, is now upon us, how does the pride of life cower in the corner, the jokes fall away from our lips, and the ability to stand drains from us. Nineveh, what big walls you have, big enough for chariots to run upon, and what a terrifying army is yours, but Nabopolassar has caught a scent, Nebuchadnezzar is aware of your infection, and they find the smell intoxicating.
Behold, I am against you - Babylon was one thing, scary enough, but if God was on the side of Nineveh then Babylon would be a small thing. He has sent Babylon, the violent and wicked Assyria will collide with the ruthless Babylonians.
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