Charles Ellicott Commentary Nahum 1:10

"For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly as dry stubble." — Nahum 1:10 (ASV)

For while. —Better, For they will be like bundles of thorns, and even while soaked in their drink they will be burned up like fully dry stubble.

Dry thorn cuttings were commonly used as fuel. (Psalms 118:12; Ecclesiastes 7:6.) The verse compares the victims of Jehovah’s wrath, first, to a compact bundle of thorns; secondly, to a material equally combustible: the dry straw and stubble of the threshing floor.

Regarding the words “while soaked in their drink,” it can be noted that in the final siege of Nineveh, a great defeat of its forces was brought about by a surprise while the king and his captains were immersed in revelry (Diodorus Siculus ii. 26).

Benhadad, king of Syria, and Belshazzar, king of Babylon, were overcome under similar circumstances (1 Kings 1:16; Daniel 5:1–30). Feasting and revelry may have occurred in Sennacherib’s camp when the sudden visitation of the “angel of the Lord” was impending; but on this point, we have no information.

The introduction of this detail adds a certain grim humour to the metaphor. Though the enemy may be soaked in wine, he will surely burn like the driest fuel in the day of Jehovah’s fiery wrath.

The opening clause of the verse presents grammatical and lexical difficulties. Kleinert renders it: “For in thorns they will be entangled,” etc. Ewald and Hitzig render it: “For even though they are as compact as a wickerwork of thorns,” etc.