of Nahum has been taken by some as referring to the
campaign of Phraortes against Assyria, but more frequently
to the destruction of Nineveh by the Medes and Chaldaeans. It
undoubtedly refers to the siege interrupted by the Scythian
invasion.

There she lies, behind her bastions of brick, anxiously listening for
the approach of the victorious Medes. "The noise of the whip, and
the noise of the rattling of wheels; and prancing horses and jumping
chariots; the horsemen mounting, and the flashing sword, and the
glittering spear; and a multitude of slain and a great heap of carcases:
and there is no end of the corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:
because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favoured harlot,
the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms,
and families through her witchcrafts. Behold, I am against thee, saith
Jahveh of hosts, and I will discover thy skirts upon they face; and I
will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. And I
will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set
thee as a gazing-stock. And it shall come to pass that all they that
look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who
will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee?" Thebes, the
city of Amon, did not escape captivity; why then should Nineveh prove
more fortunate? "All thy fortresses shall be like fig trees with the
firstripe figs: if they be shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.
Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women; the gates of thy land
are set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire hath devoured thy bars.
Draw thee water for the siege, strengthen thy fortresses: go into the
clay and tread the mortar, make strong the brick-kiln. There shall the
fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off,... make thyself many as
the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. Thou hast multiplied
thy merchants as the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth and flieth
away. Thy crowned are as the locusts and thy marshals as the swarms of
grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun
ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
Thy shepherds slumber, O King of Assyria: thy worthies are at rest: thy
people are scattered upon the mountains, and there is none to gather
them. There is no assuaging of thy hurt; thy wound is grievous: all that
hear t