The graphic picture of the final attack on Nineveh continues. Horsemen charging: the term translated charging here may be understood as “rearing” (New English Bible). In that case the description is of the horses rather than the riders, and it speaks of them raising themselves up on their hind legs. However, if this is understood as a charging action, another possible rendering is: “Horsemen urge their horses forward” or “Horsemen urge their horses to race forward to fight.” In other languages one must be even more explicit and say “The soldiers riding horses urge their horses….”

Flashing sword and glittering spear: these words speak of the reflection of the sun on the metal weapons of the attackers (compare 2.3-4).

Hosts of slain, heaps of corpses: the attackers kill so many of the people of Nineveh that the bodies lie in heaps. Assyrian inscriptions record that this is exactly how the Assyrians had treated peoples whom they had conquered, so the prophet is here speaking of a just punishment upon them. Good News Translation reduces these two phrases to one clause, “corpses are piled high.” Some translations will need to say: “dead bodies lie in huge mounds” or “the dead bodies are piled up in high mounds.”

Dead bodies without end: these words emphasize the greatness of the slaughter. They are largely parallel in meaning with the previous words, and some translators may prefer to give all the information in a single clause. They can say something like “Dead bodies too many to count are piled high,” or “countless dead bodies are piled high,” or “dead bodies without number are piled high.”

They stumble over the bodies: there are so many dead people lying around that the attacking soldiers can hardly step over them, and so they stumble. They (Revised Standard Version) or “men” (Good News Translation) may need to be rendered “the enemy soldiers.”

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A . A Handbook on the Book of Nahum. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1989. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .