Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
He shall recount his worthies - The Assyrian king wakes as out of a sleep, literally, "he remembers his mighty men" (as Nahum 3:18; Judges 5:13; Nehemiah 3:5); "they stumble in their walk," literally, paths , not through haste only and eager fear, but from want of inward might and the aid of God. These whom God leads stumble not Isaiah 63:13. : "Perplexed every way and not knowing what they ought to do, their mind wholly darkened and almost drunken with ills, they reel to and fro, turn from one thing to another, and in all" labor in vain.
They shall make haste to the walls thereof, and the defense - (literally, "the covering" ) shall be prepared The Assyrian monuments leave no doubt that a Jewish writer is right in the main, in describing this as a covered shelter, under which an enemy approached the city; "a covering of planks with skins upon them; under it those who fight against the city come to the wall and mine the wall underneath, and it is a shield over them from the stones, which are cast from off the wall."
The monuments, however, exhibit this shelter, as connected not with mining but with a battering ram, mostly with a sharp point, by which they loosened the walls . Another covert was employed to protect single miners who picked out single stones with a pick-axe . The Assyrians sculptures show, in the means employed against or in defense of their engines, how central a part of the siege they formed . Seven of them are represented in one siege . The "ram" Ezekiel 4:2 is mentioned in Ezekiel as the well-known and ordinary instrument of a siege.
Thus, Nahum 2:3 describes the attack; and Nahum 2:4 describes the defense; the two first clauses of Nahum 2:5 describes the defense; the two last describe clauses the attack. This quick interchange only makes the whole account more vivid.
: "But what avails it to build the house, unless the Lord build it? What helps it to shut the gates, which the Lord unbarreth?" On both sides is put forth the full strength of man; there seems a stand-still to see, what will be, and God brings to pass His own work in His own way.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Nahum 2:5:
Nahum 2:5
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