a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular construct
whip
שׁ֔וֹטShot
H7752
a lash (literally or figuratively) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
noise
וְק֖וֹלve.Kol
H6963
a voice or sound · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
rattling
רַ֣עַשׁRa.'ash
H7494
vibration · noun, common masculine singular construct
wheels
אוֹפָ֑ן'o.Fan
H212
a wheel · noun, common masculine singular absolute
pransing
דֹּהֵ֔רdo.Her
H1725
to curvet or move irregularly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
horses
וְס֣וּסve.Sus
H5483
a horse (as leaping) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
jumping
מְרַקֵּדָֽהme.ra.ke.Dah
H7540
properly · verb, piel active participle, feminine singular absolute
chariots
וּמֶרְכָּבָ֖הu.mer.ka.Vah
H4818
a chariot · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 47:3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathe…
Nahum 2:3-4 The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his prepa…
Judges 5:22 Then were the horsehoofs broken by the means of the pransings, the pransings of their mighty ones.
Job 39:22-25 He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.
Isaiah 9:5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Nahum 3:1-7
Here is, I. Nineveh arraigned and indicted. It is a high charge that is here drawn up against that great city, and neither her numbers nor her grandeur shall secure her from prosecution. 1. It is a city of blood, in which a great deal of innocent blood is shed by unrighteous war, or under colour and pretence of public justice, or by suffering barbarous murders to go unpunished; for this the righteous God will make inquisition. 2. It is all full of lies; truth is banished from among them; there is no such thing as honesty; one knows not whom to believe nor whom to trust. 3. It is all full of robbery and rapine; no man cares what mischief he does, nor to whom he does it: The prey departs not,…
The reader is transported into the midst of the fight (compare Jer 47:3). 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.
Adam Clarke on Nahum 3:1
Wo to the bloody city! - Nineveh: the threatenings against which are continued in a strain of invective, astonishing for its richness, variety, and energy. One may hear and see the whip crack, the horses prancing, the wheels rumbling, the chariots bounding after the galloping steeds; the reflection from the drawn and highly polished swords; and the hurled spears, like gashes of lightning, dazzling the eyes; the slain lying in heaps, and horses and chariots stumbling over them! O what a picture, and a true representation of a battle, when one side is broken, and all the cavalry of the conqueror fall in upon them, hewing them down with their swords, and trampling them to pieces under the hoofs…
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,…
The Church Fathers
Because emptying they have emptied them out and their branches. They destroyed the weapons of their power from among men, mighty men mocking in fire. The reins of their chariots on the day of his preparation, and the horsemen shall be thrown into confusion in the ways, and the chariots shall be thrown into confusion and shall clash together in the broad ways; their appearance is like torches of fire and like lightnings running to and fro. As the God who knows all things sounded in the holy prophets the things that would be at various times, they necessarily announced them according to what seemed good to him. And many times they occurred even in the very visions of things. Therefore they were astonished, and seeing them all but fulfilled, they made their pronouncements about them; something of which sort the Prophet now seems to have experienced concerning the inhabitants of Nineveh, and those who shielded themselves with Cyrus, that they both shook them off and their branches. But the account is made as from what is accustomed to happen to vines. For the cluster is shaken off and spits out the grapes, either when a most violent wind attacks, or when a scorching heat burns it, or when any other harm befalls it, so that the branch itself appears with the fruits, stripped even of its blossom. So then they shook them off like vines. And their weapons have been destroyed, that is, their power; for 'weapons' sometimes signifies power. But he says that being terrible horsemen, and knowing the battles from chariots, they were in such unbearable terrors, that they were turned to flight, and entangled with one another, and were shattered dashing against each other, and he thought he so gazed upon the phalanxes of the enemy, that they yielded in no way to torches, or even like lightning consumed them, darting with a swift and unrestrained course.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Chariot · For war — For war
Chariots · Bounding motion of, referred to — Bounding motion of, referred to
Nineveh · Predictions respecting: Coming up of the Babylonish armies against — Predictions respecting: Coming up of the Babylonish armies against
Whip · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Nahum 3:2-3
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.
2. Sonitus flagelli, et sonitus commotionis rotae, et equus concutiens, et quadriga exultans;
3. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:
3. Eques ascendere faciens, et flamma gladii, et fulgur lanceae, et multitudo occisi (est mutatio numeri, occisorum,) et pondus cadaverum (hoc est etiam multitudo,) et nullus finis cadaveribus ejus; impingent in cadavera ejus:
The Prophet represen…
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 hear…
These short, staccato phrases dramatize the effects of seeing and hearing the battle. • Assyrian chariots and charioteers were feared far and wide.
Rashi on Nahum 3:2
The sound of the scourge—The sound of striking the horses was always heard therein.
and the sound of the noise—of the wheels of the chariots.
and galloping horses Heb. דֹּהֵר, skipping and jumping. And so it is in (Jud. 5:22) “By reason of the prancings, the prancings of their mighty ones.”
