Albert Barnes Commentary Nahum 3:5

"Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will uncover thy skirts upon thy face; and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame." — Nahum 3:5 (ASV)

Behold I am against you, says the Lord of Hosts—Jerome comments: “I will not send an Angel, nor give your destruction to others; I Myself will come to destroy you.” Cyril adds: “She does not have to do with man, or war with man: He who is angered with her is the Lord of hosts. But who would meet God Almighty, who has power over all, if He would war against him?”

In the Medes and Persians, it was God who was against them. Behold I am against you—literally, “toward you.” It is a new thing which God was about to do. Behold! God in His long-suffering had seemed to overlook her. Now, He says, I am toward you, looking at her with His all-searching eye, as her Judge.

Violence is punished by suffering; deeds of shame by shame. All sin is a whited sepulchre, fair without, foul within.

God will strip off the outward fairness and lay bare the inward foulness. The deepest shame is to lay bare what the sinner or the world veiled within. I will discover your skirts, that is, the long-flowing robes which were part of her pomp and dignity, but which were only the veil of her misdeeds.

Through the greatness of your iniquity have your skirts been discovered, says Jeremiah in answer to the heart’s question, “Why have these things come upon me?” Upon your face, where shame is felt, the conscience of your foulness shall be laid bare before your face, your eyes, your memory continually, so that you shall be forced to read in it whatever you have done, said, or thought.

I will show the nations your nakedness, that all may despise, avoid, take example by you, and praise God for His righteous judgments upon you.

The Evangelist heard much people in heaven saying Alleluia to God that He hath judged the whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication (Revelation 19:1–2). And Isaiah says, They shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that hath transgressed against Me (Isaiah 66:24).