The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible Nahum 2:3
The shield of his mighty men is made red…
The shields
of the soldiers in the armies of the Babylonians and Medes, those
dashers in pieces that would come up against Nineveh, should be red;
either with the blood of the slain, or thus coloured on purpose to
inject terror to their enemies; or this may express the lustre of them,
which being gilded, or made of gold or brass, in the rays of the sun
glittered, and looked of a fiery red; see the Apocrypha:
``Now when the sun shone upon the shields of gold and brass,
the mountains glistered therewith, and shined like lamps
of fire.'' (1 Maccabees 6:39)
the valiant men [are] in scarlet;
the generals and other officers
of the army were clothed in scarlet; partly to show their greatness and
nobleness, and partly to strike their enemies with terror, and to hide
their blood should they be wounded, and so keep up their own spirits,
and not encourage their enemies:
the chariots [shall be] with flaming torches in the day of his
preparation;
that is, when the Medes and Chaldeans, under their
respective commander or commanders, shall prepare for the siege of the
city, and to make their onset and attack upon it, the chariots used by
them in war, which was common in those times, would have flaming
torches in them; either to guide them in the night, or to set fire to
houses or tents they should meet with, or to terrify the enemy: or "the
chariots [shall be] as flaming torches" F7; they should run with such
swiftness, that the wheels, being of iron, or cased with it, should
strike fire upon the stones in such quantities, that they should look
like torches flaming:
and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken;
with the motion of the
chariots; or this may be interpreted of spears and lances, and such
like instruments of war, made of fir; which should be in such great
numbers, and with so much activity used against the Ninevites, that it
would look like shaking a forest of fir trees. The Targum interprets
these of the great men and generals of their armies glittering in dyed
garments; and Kimchi's father, of the princes and great men of the city
of Nineveh, who would be seized with terror, and reel about like
drunken men; and so all that follows in the next verse (Nahum 2:4) .
FOOTNOTES:
F7 So (b) is sometimes used as (k) . See Nold. Concord. Ebr. Part.
p. 162. No. 728. So Piscator, and the Tigurine version.
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