Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Nahum 3:2
The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the jumping chariots.
2, 3. Graphic description of the attack on Nineveh. Nah 3:2 describes rather what is heard when the onset commences: cracking whips and prancing horsemen and rattling wheels; and Nah 3:3 what is seen: charging horsemen, and flashing swords and glittering spears. On the whip, Layard, II. 356.
jumping chariots ] i.e. bounding either from their excessive speed, or from the obstacles which they meet in the uneven ground before the city.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The noise (literally, voice) of the whip – There is cry against cry; the voice of the enemy, brought upon them through the voice of the oppressed. Blood hath a voice which crieth Gen 4:10 to heaven; its echo or counterpart, as it were, is the cry of the destroyer. All is urged on with terrific speed. The chariot-wheels quiver in the rapid onset; the chariots bound, like living things; the earth echoes with the whirling swiftness of the speed of the cavalry. The prophet within, with the inward ear and eye which hears the mysteries of the Kingdom of God Mat 13:11, Mat 13:16 and sees things to come, as they shall come upon the wicked, sees and hears the scourge coming, with The words in Hebrew are purposely chosen with rough r sounds: raash, dahar, meraqedah, a great noise, impetuously; and so describes it as present. Wars and rumors of wars are among the signs of the Day of Judgment. The scourge, though literally relating to the vehement onset of the enemy, suggests to the thoughts, the scourges of Almighty God, wherewith He chastens the penitent, punishes the impenitent; the wheel, the swift changes of mans condition in the rolling-on of time. O God, make them like a rolling thing Psa 83:14.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The French reads this verse with a negative distributive, and so links this and the next verse with the former negative, Nah 3:1; thus, The prey departeth not, nor the noise of the whip, nor, &c., intimating the long continuance of the Chaldeans insulting over the Ninevites.
The noise of a whip, with which the charioteer roused and animated the horses which drew the warlike chariots.
The noise of the rattling of the wheels, by the swift motion of the horses,
and of the pransing horses, in the chariots proudly and stately trampling, and of the jumping chariots, made to jump by the swiftness and strength of the horses which drew them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. The reader is transportedinto the midst of the fight (compare Jer47:3). The “noise of the whips” urging on the horses(in the chariots) is heard, and of “the rattling of the wheels”of war chariots, and the “horses” are seen “prancing,”and the “chariots jumping,” &c.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The noise of a whip,…. Of a horseman or chariot driver whipping his horses to make speed to Nineveh, and enter into it, so near as to be heard by the inhabitants of it; and is thus represented in order to strike terror into them:
and the noise of the rattling of the wheels; that is, of the chariots upon the stones, whose drivers drove Jehu like, making the utmost haste they could to get in first, and seize the prey:
and of the pransing horses; or bounding steeds, upon a full gallop; either with horsemen on them riding full speed to partake of the booty; or in chariots, in which they caper and prance, and shake the ground as they go; hence it follows:
and of the jumping chariots; which, through the swiftness of the motion, seem to leap and dance as they run along.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This threat is explained in Nah 3:2., by a description of the manner in which a hostile army enters Nineveh and fills the city with corpses. Nah 3:2. “The cracking of whips, and noise of the rattling of wheels, and the horse in galloping, and chariots flying high. Nah 3:3. Riders dashing along, and flame of the sword, and flashing of the lance, and multitude of slain men and mass of dead men, and no end of corpses; they stumble over their corpses. Nah 3:4. For the multitude of the whoredoms of the harlot, the graceful one, the mistress of witchcrafts, who sells nations with her whoredoms, and families with her witchcrafts.” Nahum sees in spirit the hostile army bursting upon Nineveh. He hears the noise, i.e., the cracking of the whips of the charioteers, and the rattling ( raash ) of the chariot-wheels, sees horses and chariots driving along ( dahar , to hunt, cf. Jdg 5:22; riqqed , to jump, applied to the springing up of the chariots as they drive quickly along over a rugged road), dashing riders ( maaleh , lit., to cause to ascend, sc. the horse, i.e., to make it prance, by driving the spur into its side to accelerate its speed), flaming swords, and flashing lances. As these words are well adapted to depict the attack, so are those which follow to describe the consequence or effect of the attack. Slain men, fallen men in abundance, and so many corpses, that one cannot help stumbling or falling over them. , the heavy multitude. The chethib is to be read ( niphal), in the sense of stumbling, as in Nah 2:6. The keri is unsuitable, as the sentence does not express any progress, but simply exhibits the infinite number of the corpses (Hitzig). , their (the slain men’s) corpses. This happens to the city of sins because of the multitude of its whoredoms. Nineveh is called Zonah , and its conduct z e nunm , not because it had fallen away from the living God and pursued idolatry, for there is nothing about idolatry either here or in what follows; nor because of its commercial intercourse, in which case the commerce of Nineveh would appear here under the perfectly new figure of love-making with other nations (Ewald), for commercial intercourse as such is not love-making; but the love-making, with its parallel “witchcrafts” ( k e shaphm ), denotes “the treacherous friendship and crafty politics with which the coquette in her search for conquests ensnared the smaller states” (Hitzig, after Abarbanel, Calvin, J. H. Michaelis, and others). This policy is called whoring or love-making, “inasmuch as it was that selfishness which wraps itself up in the dress of love, and under the appearance of love seeks simply the gratification of its own lust” (Hengstenberg on the Rev.). The zonah is described still more minutely as , beautiful with grace. This refers to the splendour and brilliancy of Nineveh, by which this city dazzled and ensnared the nations, like a graceful coquette. Baalath k e shaphm , devoted to witchcrafts, mistress of them. K e shaphm (witchcrafts) connected with z e nunm , as in 2Ki 9:22, are “the secret wiles, which, like magical arts, do not come to the light in themselves, but only in their effects” (Hitzig). , to sell nations, i.e., to rob them of liberty and bring them into slavery, to make them tributary, as in Deu 32:30; Jdg 2:14; Jdg 3:8, etc. (not = from , to entangle: Hitzig). , with (not for) their whoredoms. Mishpachoth , families, synonymous with , are smaller peoples or tribes (cf. Jer 25:9; Eze 20:32).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
The Prophet represents here as in a lively picture, what was nigh the Assyrians; for he sets forth the Chaldeans their enemies, with all their preparations and in their quick movements. (239) The sound of the whip, he says; the whips, made a noise in exciting the horses: the sound of the rattling of the wheel; that is, great shall be the haste and celerity, when the horses shall be forced on by the whip; the horse also shaking the earth, and the chariot bounding; the horseman making it to ascend; and then, the flame of the sword and the lightning of the spear He then says, that there would be such a slaughter, that the whole place would be full of dead bodies.
We now then understand what the Prophet means: for as Nineveh might have then appeared impregnable the Prophet confirms at large what he had said of its approaching ruin, and thus sets before the eyes of the Israelites what was then incredible.
(239) It appears from Marckius that Theodoret and Cyril regarded this verse, with Calvin, as a description of the Chaldean army after having invaded Nineveh, but that Jerome and Cocceius viewed it as a delineation of the state of Nineveh in the Prophet’s time; and with the last Newcome agrees, while Henderson coincides with the former. The version given by them is all nearly the same. It seems certainly more consistent with the order of the poem to regard the verse as describing the state of Nineveh at the time, for the sacking of Nineveh had been before very minutely delineated. Having done this, the Prophet may be supposed to give here a reason for the dreadful catastrophe which he had mentioned. Entertaining this view, and differing from others as to the meaning of some of the clauses, I offer the following version of the three verses, —
1. Oh! The city of blood! All of deceit; Of plunder it is full, none can search out the spoil: —
2. The sound of the whip, and the sound of the rattling wheel! And the horse prancing, and the chariot bounding! The horseman mounting, And the flaming of the sword and the glittering of the spear! And a multitude dancing, and a mass inactive! And no end to her people! Who are fallen, with their nations,
3. Through the many fornications of the harlot, That exults in beauty, and possesses enchantments; Who sells nations by her fornications, And tribes by her enchantments.
ימיש, “search out,” I derive from מש, which is to feel for the purpose of exploring, and then, to explore or search out; see Gen 31:34. The second verse contains a simple enumeration of what the city exhibited. רב חלל, “a multitude dancing” or piping, the ו being dropped in חלל, as it is in חללים, pipers, 1Kg 1:40. Then as a contrast comes the dead, heavy, inactive mass, כבד פגד. “To her people” or nations, לגויה, τοις εθνεσιν αυτης. — Sept. In the word בנויתם, I take that ת is a mistake for ה. If taken for carcasses, it wants a ו before ת; see Psa 110:6. The third verse must be connected with the second, as it has otherwise no grammatical construction. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) The noise of . . .Better, Hark to the whip, and hark to the rattling of the wheel, and the horse galloping, and the chariot bounding. The entry of the victorious besiegers is here described.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Nah 3:2 The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.
Ver. 2. The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels ] A most elegant and lively hypotyposis, or description, of the Chaldeans coming to take Nineveh; Tam pulchra, saith Jerome, et picturae similis, ut omnis meus sermo sit vilior; So gallant and picture like a representation of an advancing army, that no words of mine can come near it. Virgil is commended for his excellent expressions suitable to the matter he treateth of; as when he sets forth the cutting down of trees, by – Sonat icta securibus ilex; the ferryman’s trade, by – fremit ictibus aerea puppis; the gliding of his boat, by – Labitur uncta vadis abies, &c. But all this is but dull stuff to the divine rhetoric here to be read. Let those that refuse to hear God’s sweet words fear lest they be forced to hear the noise of the whip, the rattling of the wheels, &c., Psa 7:12-13 Luk 19:42 ; Luk 19:44 Pro 1:24 . The enemy is sent to revenge the quarrel of God’s covenant; the red horse is at the heels of the white, Rev 6:4 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The noise, &c. Between verses: Nah 3:1-2 supply the logical Ellipsis (App-6), thus: “is not released. [Hark! the enemy is within thy gates! ] The noise of a whip . . . chariot”.
jumping = bumping, or sounding.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
noise: Nah 2:3, Nah 2:4, Jdg 5:22, Job 39:22-25, Isa 9:5, Jer 47:3
Reciprocal: Isa 5:28 – their horses’ Jer 8:16 – at the Eze 23:24 – with chariots Eze 26:7 – with horses Joe 2:5 – the noise
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Nah 3:2. This verse begins describing the details at the “woe” with which the chapter begins. Noise of a whip. Military operations were carried on largely with chariots drawn by horses, and this phase predicts the lashing of the animals in urging them on through the city. Streets had rough and rocky surfaces and the chariot wheels were equipped with hard tires, hence the rattling noise they would make. Jumping is from RAQAD which Strong defines, “A primitive root; properly to stamp, i.e. to spring about (wildly or for joy).” The word has been rendered by dance, jump, leap and skip. The prancing horses would naturally produce such movements in the chariots.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Nah 3:2-3. The noise of a whip, &c. These verses are highly poetical; the prophet tells them, that he already hears the sound of the whips driving on the horses, and the rattling of the chariot wheels, &c., of their enemies coming against them. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword, &c. In the Hebrew it is, The horseman lifteth up the flame of the sword, and the lightning of the spear, which is more poetical than our rendering. The style of the whole passage is extremely fine; scarce any thing can be more picturesque, or strongly descriptive of a victorious army.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
3:2 The noise of a whip, {b} and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.
(b) He shows how the Chaldeans will hasten, and how courageous their horses will be in beating the ground when they come against the Assyrians.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Again the prophet described the sounds and sights that would accompany the battle in which Nineveh would fall (cf. Nah 2:3-4). Whips could be heard as soldiers urged their horses forward. Nahum heard the sound of chariot wheels and the hoofs of horses bearing cavalry soldiers clattering on the pavement. Horsemen were charging, swords were flashing, and spears were gleaming in the light. The large number of corpses on the scene of battle impressed Nahum. They seemed to be countless, so many that they appeared to cover the ground completely. The living soldiers had trouble moving about because they kept tripping over dead bodies. This was a scene that someone might have seen had they visited the site of one of the Assyrian army’s battles, but this one was taking place in Nineveh and the dead were mainly Ninevites.
"God has allowed Nahum to witness the fall of Nineveh even though it is years, perhaps even decades, away." [Note: Longman, "Nahum," p. 813.]
"No passage of Hebrew literature surpasses this for vividness of description." [Note: Charles L. Feinberg, "Nahum," in The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, p. 867.]