Nahum 02
Nahum 2:1 (2:2) The watchmen of Nineveh shout: “An enemy who will scatter you is marching out to attack you!” “Guard the rampart! Watch the road! Prepare yourselves for battle! Muster your mighty strength!”
The watchmen of Ninevah were the guards who were sitting on top of their 150 towers. These towers were 200 feet high. From these towers, the watchman saw an invasion army coming from Babylon and Media.
2 For the Lord will restore the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, though their enemies have plundered them and have destroyed their fields.
Assyria violated the Abrahamic Covenant and destroyed Israel temporarily, so Jehovah will destroy Assyria permanently. Assyria “emptied” Israel, so God will “empty” Assyria. This is the kind-for-kind judgment which Gentile nations received for violating the Abrahamic Covenant.
3 The shields of his warriors are dyed red; the mighty soldiers are dressed in scarlet garments. The metal fittings of the chariots shine like fire on the day of battle; the soldiers brandish their spears.
The invading Babylonian and Median army is very well armed and prepared for war. They are dressed in red and scarlet military uniforms. Their metal shields and swords metaphorically shine like fire.
4 The chariots race madly through the streets, they rush back and forth in the broad plazas; they look like lightning bolts, they dash here and there like flashes of lightning.
The invading Babylonian and Median army will invade Assyria with chariots which are metaphorically as fast as lightning.
5 The commander orders his officers; they stumble as they advance; they rush to the city wall and they set up the covered siege tower.
The Assyrian commanders order their officers to prepare for battle. The Assyrian officers stumble and make mistakes as they prepare for the Babylon-Media invasion
6 The sluice gates are opened; the royal palace is deluged and dissolves.
The sluice gates are opened for the flooding of the Euphrates River. While the Babylonians and Medians are sieging Assyria, there will be a rare thunderstorm in the summer which will cause the Euphrates River to overflow. This overflow will flood the canals and knock down two miles of the Ninevah walls. The Babylonians and Medians will charge through this breech in the wall and defeat the Assyrians.
7 Nineveh is taken into exile and is led away; her slave girls moan like doves while they beat their breasts.
There was an old Assyrian prophecy which predicted that when the river becomes Assyria’s enemy, the city will be destroyed. The flooding of the Euphrates River sent the Assyrians into a great mental depression. When this flood occurs, Ninevah will be taken captive into exile. The king was a bisexual who liked to cross-dress. He will commit mass suicide by burning himself and his concubines at a funeral pyre.
8 Nineveh was like a pool of water throughout her days, but now her people are running away; she cries out: “Stop! Stop!”— but no one turns back.
The Assyrian soldiers show cowardice by running away from the battle. The officers command them to stop, but they keep running.
9 Her conquerors cry out: “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!” There is no end to the treasure; riches of every kind of precious thing.
Assyria had plundered many cities in the past. Now, they would lose all of their plunder to the Babylonians and Medes.
10 Destruction, devastation, and desolation! Their hearts faint, their knees tremble, each stomach churns, each face turns pale!
Nahum predicted that the proud city of Assyria would be sacked and plundered. The citizens of Assyria would no longer show pride, but fear.
11 Where now is the den of the lions, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, lioness, and lion cub once prowled and no one disturbed them?
The lion was the symbol of Assyria (and also Babylon). Assyria was no longer a powerful lion who fed upon prey.
12 The lion tore apart as much prey as his cubs needed and strangled prey to provide food for his lionesses; he filled his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh.
The lion tore apart other nations as prey and fed them to her cubs.
13 “I am against you!” declares the Lord who commands armies: “I will burn your chariots with fire; the sword will devour your young lions; you will no longer prey upon the land; the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”
Jehovah will kill the lion and her cubs so that she cannot devour other nations.
In conclusion, Assyria was commanded by God to destroy Israel, but she took the destruction too far. She used her free will to destroy Israel. She gave the credit of destroying Israel to her own demonic gods. This was a violation of the Abrahamic Covenant. She would be cursed by the kind-for-kind judgment. Assyria's penalty was extinction. There will be no Assyrians in the Millennial Kingdom.