God’s Word for You

Nahum 2:5-7 The mighty waters rise

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, May 14, 2026

5 He summons his picked troops,
yet they stumble as they go.
They hurry to the city wall;
the defense is put in place.
6 The gates of the rivers are opened
and the palace collapses.
7 She is stripped and carried away.
Her slave girls moan like doves and beat upon their breasts.

In the verses before, the prophet was telling the story like a man within the walls, watching the enemy move closer and closer, and then the chaos of the chariots when they appeared. Now he turns to watch the defenders, to see what they will do.

First, the king summons certain picked troops of officers. The Hebrew word ‘adir means “majestic” or lofty ones. This is the word David used in Psalm 8, “How majestic is your name in all the earth!” (8:1, 9). It is also the “mighty” Isaiah uses for a name of God in Isaiah 33:21 (and “mighty ships” in the same verse). But here it must be a group of elite soldiers or tacticians. But they’re no help. They stumble and trip over themselves as they try to hurry.

In the second part of verse 5, a mysterious “defense” is set up, and I think this must be by the defenders and not the attackers. This rare and unique word is difficult to translate but somewhat easier to understand. It is thought to be some sort of canopy or portable shield, perhaps against arrows. Or it might be what the Latin translation suggests, an umbrella or shade from the sun (unbraculum). What they need are good strong shields. What they seem to have available is no better than sun glasses.

Verse 6 describes the actual fall of Nineveh. A tablet from this period (612 BC) records this:

“The king of Akkad mustered his army and marched to Assyria. The king of the Medes marched towards the king of Akkad and they met one another at [missing]. The king of Akkad and his army crossed the Tigris; Cyaxares had to cross the Radanu, and they marched along the bank of the Tigris. In the [next] month, they encamped against Nineveh. From the month of Simanu until the month of Abu (that is, for three months) they subjected the city to a heavy siege. On the (?) day of the month of Abu they inflicted a major defeat upon a great people. At that time Sin-šar-iškun, king of Assyria, died. They carried off the vast booty of the city and the temple and turned the city into a ruin heap. The [prince?] of Assyria escaped from the enemy and, to save his life, seized the feet of the king of Akkad.”

We are left with a question, then, about the opening of “the gates of the rivers.” Just what does Nahum mean? A Greek historian from many centuries later (Diodorus) attempts to describe the river becoming “an enemy of the city,” but his account gets the name of the river wrong (Euphrates rather than Tigris) and he assumes that torrential rains flooded things. We are left with a series of possibilities:

1, The “gates” might have been bridges across the Tigris and its two tributaries that converge at Nineveh. However, why wouldn’t the prophet have been more specific, even using poetic terms, about bridges? The Hebrew word ma’abar “ford” is common enough (Judges 3:28; Jeremiah 51:32). Surely a bridge could easily be described.

2, The gates may have been certain gates that opened from the city toward the Tigris. However, such gates are always called gates “of the city” and not “of the river.”

3, Could the gates have been structures like dams or sluice gates which, being blocked in a certain way, have caused the water to rise to the advantage of an attacker? Let’s come back to this one.

4, Could Nahum be describing the gates or culverts where canals or the tributary river passed through the city wall? This does not quite fit the phrase, “the gates of the rivers” either.

5, Could this be a reference to breaches made in the walls by the diverted Tigris or the tributary river? But why then call breaches in the wall “gates of the rivers”?

6, Is “gates of the rivers” just a figurative way of expressing something like the streets or roads that people were escaping on? But the language of the passage doesn’t fit this idea.

7, “The gates of the rivers” should be taken literally, not figuratively. Such gates would in some way have controlled the flow of the river, the tributary, and / or the canals into or around the city.

Literary hints in the Assyrian and later Greek histories as well as archaeological evidence points to the third and seventh points (that is, taking Nahum literally) as the best course. The gates, which allowed water into the city from freshwater canals and streams, were evidently closed during the siege, cutting off the city’s water supply (the Tigris, close by, is undrinkable even when ‘cut’ with alcohol). Then when the water from these streams had backed up sufficiently or filled available reservoirs, the gates were literally opened, and the water breached the city walls. When the torrent subsided, the attackers entered and captured the city. Later, other commanders used similar tactics against other cities; the lessons learned at Nineveh were passed along.

In verse 7, a mysterious “she” is stripped, and with her slave girls is carried off into captivity. The word in the text is huzzab, which some take to be a verb, but is probably the title or name of the queen. Luther follows Nicholas of Lyra here with “His wife,” which is the same thing. Her handmaidens or slave girls used to play songs on their instruments and they sang with voices like songbirds. Now they thump their breasts instead of tambourines and their voices are like those of mourning doves. What used to be sounds of joy or pleasure or even comedy is now reduced to grief and fear.

In this way, the prophet continues to proclaim the law. Those who have rejected the Lord and who made themselves his enemies will be treated like enemies. Their downfall cannot be measured, it is so very low. “Destruction will come on them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

But for all those who put our faith in Christ, there is safety and a stronghold. “You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them” (Psalm 35:10). And the Lord promises: “I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety” (Ezekiel 34:25). And to apply the scene of our verses here, “Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you. Surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach us” (Psalm 32:6). The Lord our God is good. He gives us nothing but good things, and he protects us from sin and every evil.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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