And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.
Huzzab - the name of the Queen of Nineveh, from a Hebrew root [hutsab, from naatsab (H5324), to settle or fix], implying that she stood by the king (Psalms 45:9, "Upon thy right hand did stand the queen"). (Vatablus.) Rather, Nineveh personified as a queen. She who had long stood in the most supreme prosperity. Similarly Calvin. George Rawlinson conjectures that the name Huzzab may answer to the region Adiabene of the geographers, derived from the Zab or Diab rivers on which it lay. Maurer makes it not a proper name, and translates, 'It is established,' or 'determined' (cf. Genesis 41:32, "The thing is established by God;" Daniel 6:12, "The thing is true"). Gesenius takes the Hebrew from a root [tsaabab] akin to the Arabic, flowed away; and connects it with the previous verse, "And the palace shall be dissolved, and shall flow away." Henderson thinks that the gender requires the Hebrew term to be connected with the preceding verse, but takes it from the Hebrew root, to settle or establish: 'The palace is dissolved, though firmly established.' However, the Hebrew feminine termination is not required to be appended to an Assyrian proper name, Huzzab the queen. Thus, Nisibis was written by the Assyrians Natzab, according to Stephanus. Moreover, the English version is more supported by the parallelism.
Shall be led away captive - the Hebrew х gulªtaah (H1540)] in the English version sense more usually is in the Kab and Hiphil conjugations, and perhaps ought to be rendered, 'she is laid bare, brought forth from the female apartments, where Eastern women remain secluded, and is stripped of her ornamental attire. Compare Isaiah 47:2-3, "Uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh ... Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen" - where the same image of a female, with face and legs exposed, is used of city captive and dismantles (cf. Nahum 3:5). (Maurer.)
She shall be brought up - her people shall be made to go up to Babylon. Compare the use of 'go up' for being She shall be brought up - her people shall be made to go up to Babylon. Compare the use of 'go up' for being forced to move from a place (Jeremiah 21:2, "that he (Nebuchadnezzar) may go up from us").
And her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves. As Nineveh is compared to a queen dethroned and dishonoured, so she has here assigned to her, in the image, handmaids attending her with dove-like plaints (Isaiah 38:14, "I did mourn as a dove;" Isaiah 59:11). The image implies helplessness and grief suppressed, but at times breaking out. The minor cities and dependencies of Nineveh may he meant, or her captive women (Jerome). Henderson and Maurer translate х naahag (H5090), from a kindred Arabic form], for 'lead her,' 'moon,' or 'sigh.' But the English version is the sense of the Hebrew elsewhere continually.
Tabering upon their breasts - beating on their breasts as on a tamkourine.