He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared.
The Assyrian preparations for defense.
He - the Assyrian king.
Shall recount his worthies - (Nahum 3:18, "Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; thy nobles shall dwell in the dust"). He shall review or count over in his mind his nobles, choosing out the bravest to hasten to the walls and repel the attack, but in vain.
For they shall stumble in their walk - `they shall stumble in their advance' through fear and hurry.
They shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared - the covering machine used by besiegers to protect themselves in advancing to the wall. Such sudden transitions, as here from the besieged to the besiegers, are frequent (cf. Ezekiel 4:2). (Maurer.) Or that used by the besieged Assyrians (Calvin). I prefer the latter, with the English version. For the context evidently refers to the besieged, not to the besiegers. A breastwork of interwoven boughs between the trees is probably intended by the Hebrew х hacokeek (H5526) - literally, protector or protection].