Charles Ellicott Commentary Nahum 2:7

"And it is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her handmaids moan as with the voice of doves, beating upon their breasts." — Nahum 2:7 (ASV)

And Huzzab shall be led away captive ... .—It is better translated: And it is decided. She is laid bare. She is removed away. And her maidens moan, as with the cry of doves, smiting on their breasts.

It is decided, or established — c’est un fait accompli. The Authorized Version apparently follows those Rabbinic commentators who treat the Hebrew expression hutstsab as the name of an Assyrian queen, or as a symbolic designation of Nineveh.

The word hutstsab, however, is best regarded as a verb form cognate to the expression rendered by the Authorized Version as of certainty, certain, or true in Daniel 2:48, Daniel 3:24, and Daniel 7:16.

Laid bare, the common figure of the virgin city put to shame by capture .

The “maidens” who “moan as with the cry of doves” (Compare to Isaiah 38:14, Isaiah 59:11, and Ezekiel 7:16) are probably Nineveh’s dependent cities. These are represented as standing gazing on the terrible catastrophe, groaning aloud and beating the breast in a horror of despair.