Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.
Behold ... I will burn her chariots in the smoke - or, (so as to pass) 'into smoke' - i:e., entirely (Maurer). (Psalms 37:20; Psalms 46:9.) Calvin, like the English version, explains, 'As soon as the flame catches, and the fire smokes, by the mere smoke I will burn her chariots.' If the English version be retained, "smoke" must be put for she fire emitting smoke. For smoke cannot with any propriety be said to burn Nineveh's chariots.
And I will cut off thy prey from the earth - thou shalt no more carry off prey from the nations of the earth.
And the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard - no more shall thy emissaries be heard throughout thy provinces, conveying thy king's commands, and exacting tribute of subject nations. There is also probably a special allusion to the messengers (Rabshakeh, etc.) sent with haughty messages to Jerusalem and Hezekiah by Sennacherib, (cf. 2 Kings 19:23, "By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, with the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains," etc.)
Remarks:
(1) The destroying nations which from time to time appear on the stage of the world's history are God's battle-axe wherewith He executes judgment on the guilty (Nahum 2:1). After He hath employed these nations, as Nineveh and Babylon, for a time to fulfill His purpose, He lays them aside. But in the case of His elect people, as Jacob and Israel, after having inflicted the chastisements in full which were needed for their discipline and correction, He restores them to His favour again (Nahum 2:2).
(2) God sees in His own people, because of His own sovereign grace to them, an "excellency" which He sees in no other people. Let us take care that we be among "the excellent, in whom is all God's delight" (Psalms 16:3). So shall He make us, with the true Israel, "an eternal excellency" (Isaiah 60:15).
(3) How unavailing are all men's efforts, if the Lord, the only true "defense" (Nahum 2:5), is departed from them! In vain proud sinners count over their "worthies." They alone are accounted "worthy to escape all those things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:36), who have sought the Lord with an unfeigned repentance and living faith.
(4) If Nineveh had mourned with the dove-like spirit of penitence, and had smitten on her breast, like the self-condemning publican, in time, she would not too late have mourned with bitter self-reproach and despair, led by her "maids with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts" (Nahum 2:7). Her very means of-defense, the waters which almost surrounded the city, were turned against her (Nahum 2:8). Her silver, gold, vessels of desire (Nahum 2:9, margin), and store, were of no profit to her in the day of wrath. So shall it be with all transgressors. If they would mourn for sin now, they would not have to mourn on account of punishment hereafter. If they would make to themselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness now, when they die, the latter would receive them into everlasting habitations (Luke 16:9). If they would seek the dove-like Spirit, the Holy Spirit, whom the Son sends from the Father to all who truly pray, they would at last, through the merits of the Saviour, and through sanctification by the Spirit, be made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.
(5) Emptiness and desolation are the ultimate end of all mere worldly greatness (Nahum 2:10). A. guilty conscience makes cowards of the most hardy (Nahum 2:8-10). "The wicked flee when no man pursueth" (Proverbs 28:1). The lion-like nature and brute courage of Nineveh (Nahum 2:11-12) failed her in the hour of her need; and her den of iniquity, the storehouse of rapine, was utterly laid waste, because "the Lord of hosts" was "against" her (Nahum 2:13). And then the voice of her imperious "messengers" was hushed in the stillness of death forever. Let us remember all the pomp and glory of the world are similarly soon coming to an end, that so we may learn not to be dazzled by the tinsel glare; but to act on the principle, "He that doeth the will of God abideth forever" (1 John 2:17).