The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning.
Nahum paints a battle in a few strokes: chariots tearing through the streets of a doomed capital. Two questions follow — whose chariots are these, and how did Nahum describe the fall so exactly while the city still stood at its peak?
Whose Chariots
In its setting, these chariots belong to the army attacking the city, not to its defenders.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinNext the prophet describes the besieging army. Here we read of their glittering weapons. Their fast chariots dash along like lightning.
Nineveh knew chariots well. She had used them on others.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe following verses, as also Nahum 2:3-4, show that it was a warlike nation, always seeking to enrich itself with the spoil of other nations, among them Israel and Judah.
Not a Forecast of Modern Traffic
The speed and the flashing have led some readers to find cars and highways here. Gaebelein rejects that.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWe have heard even respected Bible teachers say that Nahum predicted the cars racing along our streets. Such fanciful, far-fetched and random uses of the Word of God do great harm. Nahum is not looking ahead to the car. He is giving a picture of the besiegers of Nineveh with their chariots, drawn by swift horses.
Detail Confirmed by the Spade
What the prophet describes — the scarlet, the mass of chariots, the whole apparatus of war — matches what excavation later uncovered of Assyrian life, and the way the city actually fell matches the way he said it would.
William KellyThis is certainly a striking picture of the last scenes. We have, in fine detail, what recent discoveries have shown about the abundance of scarlet and of chariots, and all the preparation for war that was characteristic of Nineveh. And more than that, the prophecy foreshows the manner in which Nineveh was to fall most vividly and exactly.
So where did Nahum get it?
Arno Clemens GaebeleinWhen Nahum spoke these words, Nineveh was at the height of her glory. Who told Nahum the Elkoshite that the proud world city would undergo such a sack and be completely wiped out? Who moved his pen to give such a vivid description of what would take place? There is but one answer — the Spirit of God.
What Happens Next
The charging chariots are only the opening of the scene. The verses that follow show the defenders reacting too late.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinIn verse 5 we see the Assyrian king turn to his army. He watches the chariots dash along the highways and broad ways that lead to the city. He counts his worthies, his generals and captains. And the army, called out suddenly, hurried and stumbled along in disorder as it made haste to reach the walls. As stated above, verse 6 came true when the river became a flood and undermined the foundations of the walls. Then the besiegers could enter in.
Babylon fell by a river too, but in the opposite way.
William KellyThe special means of Babylon's destruction was drying up the river bed by turning the river away. But the crisis that led straight to the destruction of Nineveh was the river bursting in, not the turning of it out.
Why This City
Nineveh stands for something. Each great enemy of God's people had its own character. Nineveh's was self-importance.
J. N. DarbyEgypt is the world in its natural condition, out of which the people have come. Babylon is corruption in the activity of power, which enslaves the people. Nineveh is the proud glory of the world, which recognises nothing but its own importance. It is the world as the open enemy of God's people, simply through its pride. She shall be judged like all the rest, and disappear for ever under the judgment of the Almighty.
Beyond the Ruins
The city fell, and the prophecy does not stop there.
J. N. DarbyNo doubt this had a historical fulfilment in the fall of Nineveh. But its complete accomplishment will take place when the Assyrian returns. I do not mean this city itself, which has been destroyed, but the power that will hold the territory and inherit the pride of the land of Nimrod.
Summary
- Pride — Nineveh is the world glorying in its own importance. That pride, not bad luck, brings the chariots into her streets.
- Prophecy — Nahum described the sack in detail while the city still stood at its peak. Who told him? The Spirit of God.
- Precision — later digging confirmed the scarlet, the chariots, the war-making. And the river itself broke the walls, just as verse 6 said.
- Panic — the king counts his officers, but they stumble as they run. Defence that starts on the day of the attack starts too late.
- Prospect — the ruins are history, but the prophecy has more to come. The pride of Nimrod's land will rise again, and fall again.