Nahum 2:7

And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) And Huzzab shall be led away captive. . . .—Better, And it is decided. She is laid bare. She is removed away. And her maidens moan, as with the cry of doves, smiting on their breasts.

It is decided, or established—c’est un fait accompli. The Authorised Version apparently follows those Rabbinic commentators who treat the Hebrew expression hutstsab as the name of an Assyrian queen, or as a symbolical designation of Nineveh. The word is best regarded as a verb-form cognate to the expression rendered by the Authorised Version “of certainty,” “certain,” “true,” in Daniel 2:48; Daniel 3:24; Daniel 7:16. Laid bare, the common figure of the virgin city put to shame by capture (comp. Isaiah 47:1-5). The “maidens” who “moan as with the cry of doves” (comp. Isaiah 38:14; Isaiah 59:11; Ezekiel 7:16) are probably Nineveh’s dependent cities. These are represented as standing gazing on the awful catastrophe, groaning aloud and beating the breast (comp. Luke 23:48) in a horror of despair.

Benson Commentary

Nahum 2:7. And Huzzab shall be led away captive — By Huzzab the Chaldee understands the queen, who, without due respect to her royal dignity, should be hurried away, among other captives, into a strange land; and exposed, as they, to danger and insolence. And her maids — The ladies that waited on her in her state of royalty, shall now be her companions in her captivity; shall lead her — Shall support their sorrowful, weary, and fainting queen, spent with such travel as she had not been used to; with the voice of doves, tabering, &c. — Mourning like doves, and beating their breasts, instead of musical instruments. But, as the word Huzzab signifies a strong, or impregnable fortress, some understand thereby Nineveh itself. If this be the meaning of the term, Nineveh is here figuratively represented as a great princess carried captive, with her maids of honour attending her, and bewailing hers and their own condition, with every sign and expression of lamentation: whereby was denoted, that the lesser cities under her jurisdiction should be sharers with her in her calamity. Thus Babylon is represented by Isaiah as a tender and delicate lady, undergoing the hardships of a captivity, Isaiah 47:1-8.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-10 Nineveh shall not put aside this judgment; there is no counsel or strength against the Lord. God looks upon proud cities, and brings them down. Particular account is given of the terrors wherein the invading enemy shall appear against Nineveh. The empire of Assyria is represented as a queen, about to be led captive to Babylon. Guilt in the conscience fills men with terror in an evil day; and what will treasures or glory do for us in times of distress, or in the day of wrath? Yet for such things how many lose their souls!

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The first word should he rendered, "And it is decreed; She shall be laid bare. It is decreed." All this took place, otherwise than man would have thought, because it was the will of God. She (the people of the city, under the figure of a captive woman) "shall be laid bare," in shame, to her reproach; "she shall be brought up" , to judgment, or from Nineveh as being now sunk low and depressed; "and her maids," the lesser cities, as female attendants on the royal city, and their inhabitants represented as women, both as put to shame and for weakness. The whole empire of Nineveh was overthrown by Nabopalassar. Yet neither was the special shame wanting, that the noble matrons and virgins were so led captives in shame and sorrow. "They shall lead her, as with the voice of doves," moaning, yet, for fear, with a subdued voice.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. Huzzab—the name of the queen of Nineveh, from a Hebrew root implying that she stood by the king (Ps 45:9), [Vatablus]. Rather, Nineveh personified as a queen. She who had long stood in the most supreme prosperity. Similarly Calvin. Maurer makes it not a proper name, and translates, "It is established," or "determined" (compare Ge 41:32). English Version is more supported by the parallelism.

led away captive—The Hebrew requires rather, "she is laid bare"; brought forth from the apartments where Eastern women remained secluded, and is stripped of her ornamental attire. Compare Isa 47:2, 3, where the same image of a woman with face and legs exposed is used of a city captive and dismantled (compare Na 3:5), [Maurer].

brought up—Her people shall be made to go up to Babylon. Compare the use of "go up" for moving from a place in Jer 21:2.

her maids … as … doves—As Nineveh is compared to a queen dethroned and dishonored, so she has here assigned to her in the image handmaids attending her with dove-like plaints (Isa 38:14; 59:11. The image implies helplessness and grief suppressed, but at times breaking out). The minor cities and dependencies of Nineveh may be meant, or her captive women [Jerome]. Grotius and Maurer translate, for "lead her," "moan," or "sigh."

tabering—beating on their breasts as on a tambourine.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Huzzab: this is variously taken, but the most probable guess is, that it is meant of the queen, who kept close in the palace, or temple, as where she might be most safe in the strength and supposed sacredness of the place.

Shall be led away captive; without due respect to her royal dignity, shall be hurried into a strange land with other captives, and (as they) be exposed to danger and insolence.

Her maids, ladies that waited on her in her royal state, now shall be her companions in captivity.

Shall lead her; support their sorrowful, weary, and fainting queen, spent with such travel as she had not been used unto.

As with the voice of doves; sighing out the complaints they durst not speak out.

Tabering upon their breasts; these maids of honour should now in captivity strike on their breasts, but with such caution and fear of being discovered in their lamenting their state, as should be but like the noise of a taber lightly struck; or else, instead of musical instruments on which they were used to play, and to which they were used to sing, now they strike their own breasts, and sigh out their sorrows.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Huzzab shall be led away captive,.... The Targum translates it the queen; and Jarchi and Aben Ezra, after R. Samuel, take it to be the name of the queen of Assyria; so called, as every queen might, from her standing at the king's right hand, Psalm 45:9 who, when the royal palace was destroyed, was taken out, and carried captive with the rest, who before was in a well settled and tranquil state and condition: or perhaps the king himself is designed, who may be represented as a woman, as follows, for his effeminacy; conversing only with women; imitating their voice; wearing their apparel; and doing their work, spinning, &c. which is the character historians (l) give of the last king of the Assyrians: some (m) take it to be the idol Venus, worshipped by the Ninevites: though it may be meant either of the palace itself, as Kimchi's father, which was firm and well established; or rather Nineveh itself, thought to be stable and secure, the inhabitants of which should be carried into a strange land:

she shall be brought up; the queen, or the king, out of the palace or private retirement, where they were in peace and safety; or Nineveh, and the inhabitants of it, out of their secure state and condition:

and her maids shall lead her; her maids of honour, supporting her on the right hand and left, ready to sink and faint under her misfortunes: this may also be understood of towns and villages, and the inhabitants of them, that should go into captivity along with Nineveh:

as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts; mourning like doves, inwardly and secretly, not daring to express their sorrow more publicly, because of their enemies; but knocking and beating upon their breasts, as men do upon tabrets or drums, thereby expressing the inward grief of their minds; see Ezekiel 7:16.

(l) Diodor. Sicul. l. 2. p. 109, 110. (m) Gebhardus apud Burkium in loc.

Geneva Study Bible

And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. And Huzzab] The word is altogether obscure, and Assyriology has not been able to throw any light upon it. Reference must be to the queen, but whether she be called by her name, or whether some epithet be applied to her is uncertain. The text even may be faulty. Some would read hazzab, “the lizard,” a creature which takes refuge in holes, fancying that the queen was so called because she was detected and dragged from her hiding-place. This poor witticism need not be attributed to the prophet. There is another word hazzab signifying “the litter” or palanquin (Isaiah 66:20), and in lieu of anything better one might be tempted to think that the litter might mean the woman or lady, just as in Arab. ḍḥa‘inah means a woman’s litter and then a woman.

shall be led away captive] is detected, or uncovered.

shall be brought up] she is brought up (or, out), her maids moaning as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts (Jdt 8:5). The phrase “brought up” following “detected” probably means dragged out; R.V. carried away. To “taber” is to drum or beat. Beating the breast was a gesture of grief or despair, Luke 18:13; Luke 23:27; people also smote upon the thigh, Jeremiah 31:19; Ezekiel 21:12 (Heb. 21:17). The moaning of mourners is often compared to the complaint of the dove, see Ezek. Cambridge Bible, p. 49. In Assyrian the dove is called summatu, the mourner or complainer.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - And Huzzab. The Anglican rendering (which has the authority of the Jewish commentators, and is endorsed by Ewald and Ruckert) takes Huzzab as an appellative, either the name of the Queen of Nineveh, or a symbolical name for Nineveh itself, as Sheshach, Peked, and Merathaim were for Babylon (see Jeremiah 25:26: 1:21; 51:41; Ezekiel 23:23), which was formed or adopted by Nahum for the purpose of describing its character. Huzzab may mean "established," "act firm" (Genesis 28:12), and confident in its strength; pual from natsab," to set," "to fix" (Wordsworth). We may dismiss the idea that Huzzab is the name of the queen. Such a personage is unknown to history; and there is no reason why she should be mentioned rather than the king; and persona are not introduced by name in prophecy except for some very special reason, as Cyrus (Isaiah 44:28). The alternative rendering, "it is decreed," adopted by Keil, Pusey, and many modern commentators, is unexampled, and comes in baldly, and not at all according to the prophet's manner. Henderson joins the clause with the proceiling, thus: "The palace is dissolved, though firmly established." The Septuagint gives, Ἡ ὑπόστασις ἀπεκαλύφθη, "The hidden treasures are revealed," or, "The foundation is exposed;" Vulgate, Miles captivus abductus est. It seems best to take Huzzab as an appellative representing either Nineveh or Assyria, as the country between the Upper and Lower Zab (Rawlinson, in 'Dictionary of the Bible'), or as meaning "firm," "bold." Thus Egypt is called Rahab, "arrogant" (Isaiah 30:7); the King of Assyria, Jareb, "contentious" (Hosea 5:13); Jerusalem, Ariel, "God's lion" (Isaiah 29:1). Shall be led away captive; better, is laid bare. She, the queen of nations, is stripped of her adornments and igno miniously treated. She shall be brought up. She is carried away into captivity. "Brought up" may mean brought up to judgment, as Nahum 3:5; Isaiah 47:2, 3 (Pusey). Her maids shall lead her; rather, her handmaids moan. The inhabitants of Nineveh, personified as a queen, or the lesser cities of her empire, follow their mistress mourning. As with the voice of doves (comp. Isaiah 38:14; Isaiah 59:11; Ezekiel 7:16), They shall not only show the outward tokens of sorrow, but shall mourn inwardly in their hearts, as the LXX. renders the whole clause, καθὼς περιστεραὶ φθεγγόμενει ἐν καρδίαις αὐτῶν "as down moaning in their hearts." Tabering; beating on a tabret. (For smiting the breast in token of sorrow, setup. Luke 18:13; Luke 23:48; Homer, 'Il.,' 18:31, Ξεροὶ δὲ πἇσαι Στήθεα πεπλήψοντο.) Nahum 2:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The Assyrian tries to repel this attack, but all in vain. Nahum 2:5. "He remembers his glorious ones: they stumble in their paths; they hasten to the wall of it, and the tortoise is set up. Nahum 2:6. The gates are opened in the rivers, and the palace is dissolved. Nahum 2:7. It is determined: she is laid bare, carried off, and her maids groan like the cry of doves, smiting on their breasts." On the approach of the war-chariots of the enemy to the attack, the Assyrian remembers his generals and warriors, who may possibly be able to defend the city and drive back the foe. That the subject changes with yizkōr, is evident from the change in the number, i.e., from the singular as compared with the plurals in Nahum 2:3 and Nahum 2:4, and is placed beyond the reach of doubt by the contents of Nahum 2:5., which show that the reference is to the attempt to defend the city. The subject to yizkōr is the Assyrian (בּליּעל, Nahum 2:1), or the king of Asshur (Nahum 3:18). He remembers his glorious ones, i.e., remembers that he has 'addı̄rı̄m, i.e., not merely generals (μεγιστᾶνες, lxx), but good soldiers, including the generals (as in Nahum 3:18; Judges 5:13; Nehemiah 3:5). He sends for them, but they stumble in their paths. From terror at the violent assault of the foe, their knees lose their tension (the plural hălı̄khōth is not to be corrected into the singular according to the keri, as the word always occurs in the plural). They hasten to the wall of it (Nineveh); there is הסּכך set up: i.e., literally the covering one, not the defender, praesidium militare (Hitzig), but the tortoise, testudo.

(Note: Not, however, the tortoise formed by the shields of the soldiers, held close together above their heads (Liv. xxxiv. 9), since these are never found upon the Assyrian monuments (vid., Layard), but a kind of battering-ram, of which there are several different kinds, either a moveable tower, with a battering-ram, consisting of a light framework, covered with basket-work, or else a framework without any tower, either with an ornamented covering, or simply covered with skins, and moving upon four or six wheels. See the description, with illustrations, in Layard's Nineveh, ii. pp. 366-370, and Strauss's commentary on this passage.)

The prophet's description passes rapidly from the assault upon the city wall to the capture of the city itself (Nahum 2:6). The opened or opening gates of the rivers are neither those approaches to the city which were situated on the bank of the Tigris, and were opened by the overflowing of the river, in support of which appeal has been made to the statement of Diodor. Sic. ii. 27, that the city wall was destroyed for the space of twenty stadia by the overflowing of the Tigris; for "gates of the rivers" cannot possibly stand for gates opened by rivers. Still less can it be those roads of the city which led to the gates, and which were flooded with people instead of water (Hitzig), or with enemies, who were pressing from the gates into the city like overflowing rivers (Ros.); nor even gates through which rivers flow, i.e., sluices, namely those of the concentric canals issuing from the Tigris, with which the palace could be laid under water (Vatabl., Burck, Hitzig, ed. 1); but as Luther renders it, "gates on the waters," i.e., situated on the rivers, or gates in the city wall, which were protected by the rivers; "gates most strongly fortified, both by nature and art" (Tuch, de Nino urbe, p. 67, Strauss, and others), for nehârōth must be understood as signifying the Tigris and its tributaries and canals. At any rate, there were such gates in Nineveh, since the city, which stood at the junction of the Khosr with the Tigris, in the slope of the (by no means steep) rocky bank, was to some extent so built in the alluvium, that the natural course of the Khosr had to be dammed off from the plain chosen for the city by three stone dams, remnants of which are still to be seen; and a canal was cut above this point, which conducted the water to the plain of the city, where it was turned both right and left into the city moats, but had a waste channel through the city. To the south, however, another small collection of waters helped to fill the trenches. "The wall on the side towards the river consisted of a slightly curved line, which connected together the mouths of the trenches, but on the land side it was built at a short distance from the trenches. The wall on the river side now borders upon meadows, which are only flooded at high water; but the soil has probably been greatly elevated, and at the time when the city was built this was certainly river" (see M. v. Niebuhr, Geschichte Assurs u. Babels, p. 280; and the outlines of the plan of the ground oh which Nineveh stood, p. 284). The words of the prophet are not to be understood as referring to any particular gate, say the western, either alone, or par excellence, as Tuch supposes, but apply quite generally to the gates of the city, since the rivers are only mentioned for the purpose of indicating the strength of the gates. As Luther has correctly explained it, "the gates of the rivers, however firm in other respects, and with no easy access, will now be easily occupied, yea, have been already opened." The palace melts away, not, however, from the floods of water which flow through the open gates. This literal rendering of the words is irreconcilable with the situation of the palaces in Nineveh, since they were built in the form of terraces upon the tops of hills, either natural or artificial, and could not be flooded with water. The words are figurative. mūg, to melt, dissolve, i.e., to vanish through anxiety and alarm; and היכל, the palace, for the inhabitants of the palace. "When the gates, protected by the rivers, are broken open by the enemy, the palace, i.e., the reigning Nineveh, vanishes in terror" (Hitzig). For her sway has now come to an end.

הצּב: the hophal of נצב, in the hiphil, to establish, to determine (Deuteronomy 32:8; Psalm 74:17; and Chald. Daniel 2:45; Daniel 6:13); hence it is established, i.e., is determined, sc. by God: she will be made bare; i.e., Nineveh, the queen, or mistress of the nations, will be covered with shame. גּלּתה is not to be taken as interchangeable with the hophal הגלה, to be carried away, but means to be uncovered, after the piel to uncover, sc. the shame or nakedness (Nahum 3:5; cf. Isaiah 47:2-3; Hosea 2:12). העלה, for העלה (see Ges. 63, Anm. 4), to be driven away, or led away, like the niph. in Jeremiah 37:11; 2 Samuel 2:27.

(Note: Of the different explanations that have been given of this hemistich, the supposition, which dates back as far as the Chaldee, that huzzab signifies the queen, or is the name of the queen (Ewald and Rckert), is destitute of any tenable foundation, and is no better than Hitzig's fancy, that we should read והצּב, "and the lizard is discovered, fetched up," and that this "reptile" is Nineveh. The objection offered to our explanation, viz., that it would only be admissible if it were immediately followed by the decretum divinum in its full extent, and not merely by one portion of it, rests upon a misinterpretation of the following words, which do not contain merely a portion of the purpose of God.)

The laying bare and carrying away denote the complete destruction of Nineveh. אמהתיה, ancillae ejus, i.e., Nini. The "maids" of the city of Nineveh personified as a queen are not the states subject to her rule (Theodor., Cyr., Jerome, and others), - for throughout this chapter Nineveh is spoken of simply as the capital of the Assyrian empire, - but the inhabitants of Nineveh, who are represented as maids, mourning over the fate of their mistress. Nâhag, to pant, to sigh, for which hâgâh is used in other passages where the cooing of doves is referred to (cf. Isaiah 38:14; Isaiah 59:11). כּקול יונים instead of כּיּונים, probably to express the loudness of the moaning. Tophēph, to smite, used for the smiting of the timbrels in Psalm 68:26; here, to smite upon the breast. Compare pectus pugnis caedere, or palmis infestis tundere (e.g., Juv. xiii. 167; Virg. Aen. i. 481, and other passages), as an expression of violent agony in deep mourning (cf. Luke 18:13; Luke 23:27). לבבהן for לבביהן is the plural, although this is generally written לבּות; and as the י is frequently omitted as a sign of the plural (cf. Ewald, 258, a), there is no good ground for reading לבבהן, as Hitzig proposes.