Nahum 2:4

4 The chariots pour into the streets. They fill the public squares, Flaming like torches in the sun, like lightning darting and flashing.

Nahum 2:4 Meaning and Commentary

Nahum 2:4

The chariots shall rage in the streets
In the streets of Nineveh when taken; where they shall be drove in a furious manner from place to place, the men in them breathing out slaughter and death wherever they came. Kimchi understands this of the chariots of the Ninevites; who shall drive about in them in the streets of the city like madmen; not daring to go out to fight the enemy, being mightier and more numerous than they. They shall justle one against another in the broad ways;
because of their numbers, and the haste they shall make to spoil and plunder the city; or the Ninevites shall justle one against another, in their hurry and confusion to make their escape. They shall seem like torches;
either the chariots of the Medes and Chaldeans, for the reasons given in the preceding verse ( Nahum 2:3 ) ; or they themselves, because of their fierceness and cruelty; or the faces of the Ninevites, being covered with shame, so Kimchi; see ( Isaiah 13:8 ) . They shall run like the lightnings;
exceeding swiftly, with irresistible force and power; the above writer interprets this of the Ninevites also, running from one end of their city to the other in the utmost confusion, not knowing what to do; but the whole of these two verses ( Nahum 2:3 Nahum 2:4 ) seem to be a description of their enemies.

Nahum 2:4 In-Context

2 God has restored the Pride of Jacob, the Pride of Israel. Israel's lived through hard times. He's been to hell and back.
3 Weapons flash in the sun, the soldiers splendid in battle dress, Chariots burnished and glistening, ready to charge, A spiked forest of brandished spears, lethal on the horizon.
4 The chariots pour into the streets. They fill the public squares, Flaming like torches in the sun, like lightning darting and flashing.
5 The Assyrian king rallies his men, but they stagger and stumble. They run to the ramparts to stem the tide, but it's too late.
6 Soldiers pour through the gates. The palace is demolished.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.