Nahum 2:7

7 And a knight is led away captive, and the handmaids thereof shall be driven sorrowing as culvers, grutching in their hearts. (And their horsemen be led away captive, and the slave-girls there be driven away, sorrowing like doves, grumbling in their hearts.)

Nahum 2:7 Meaning and Commentary

Nahum 2:7

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, ( Psalms 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 which is the character historians ^F12 give of the last king of the Assyrians: some ^F13 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 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Diodor. Sicul. l. 2. p. 109, 110.
F13 Gebhardus apud Burkium in loc.

Nahum 2:7 In-Context

5 He shall bethink of his strong men, they shall fall in their ways; and swiftly they shall go up on the walls thereof, and [the] shadowing place shall be made ready. (They shall call out their strong men, and they shall stumble as they hastily make their way forward; but they shall go up swiftly on the walls, and prepare the battering-rams for the siege.)

6 Gates of floods be opened, and the temple is broken down to [the] earth. (The gates by the river be opened, and the palace is broken into, and falleth down to the ground.)

7 And a knight is led away captive, and the handmaids thereof shall be driven sorrowing as culvers, grutching in their hearts. (And their horsemen be led away captive, and the slave-girls there be driven away, sorrowing like doves, grumbling in their hearts.)

8 And Nineveh, as a cistern of waters the waters thereof; forsooth they fled; Stand ye, stand ye, (they cried,) and there is not that shall turn again. (And so Nineveh was made like a water cistern, yea, like its water, as it fled away; Stand ye! stand ye in your place! they cried; but there was no one who turned back.)

9 Ravish ye silver, ravish ye gold; and there is none end of riches, of all desirable vessels. (Steal ye the silver, rob ye the gold; yea, there is no end of the riches, of all their desirable vessels.)