John Calvin Commentary Nahum 3:13

"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." — Nahum 3:13 (ASV)

The Prophet declares here that the hearts of them all would become soft and effeminate when God would proceed to destroy Nineveh. We have said before that the hearts of men are so in the hand of God that he melts whatever courage there may be in them whenever he pleases. God prepares men for ruin when he debilitates their hearts, so that they cannot bear the sight of their enemies.

God indeed can leave in men their perverseness, so that they may continually run furiously into ruin and not be able, with a courageous heart, to repel the attacks of their enemies. However, he often softens their hearts and deprives them of power, so that he may make his judgment more evident. God does not always work in the same way, for variety in his judgments is calculated to do us good, because by this our minds are more powerfully awakened.

If his proceedings were uniformly the same, we could not distinguish the hand of God as well as when he acts now in this way, and then in another. But, as I have already said, it is well known that God enervates men and strips them of all courage when he gives them over to destruction.

So now the Prophet speaks of the Ninevites: Behold, he says, your people are women. The demonstrative particle 'Behold' is emphatic here, for the Assyrians, no doubt, ridiculed the Prophet's prediction as a fable, and the Israelites also found it difficult to believe. This is why the Prophet pointed out, as if with his finger, what surpassed human comprehension.

By saying, in your midst, he intimates that even if they were separated from their enemies and dwelling in a fortified city, they would still be filled with trembling. This amplification deserves to be noticed, for it is not surprising when an attack frightens us, when enemies engage us in battle, and when many things appear before our eyes that are calculated to deprive us of courage. But when we are frightened merely by a report about our enemies and become fainthearted, even though walls separate us, it then becomes evident that we are smitten by the hand of God. For when we see walls of stone, and yet our hearts become brittle like glass, is it not evident that we are inwardly terrified by the Lord, as it were, through some hidden influence, rather than through intervening and natural causes?

We therefore now perceive the Prophet’s meaning when he says that the people would become women, or effeminate, in the midst of the city, in its very heart—as if he had said that they would not cease to tremble, even while dwelling in a safe place.

By opening, opened shall be your gates, he says, to your enemies. He shows again that even though the Assyrians were fortified, every access would be made open to their enemies, as though there were no fortress. By saying, the gates of your land, it is probable that he is speaking not only of the city but of all their strongholds.

The Assyrians, no doubt, fortified many cities in order to keep the enemy at a distance and to preserve the chief seat of the empire free from danger and fear. I therefore understand the Prophet as referring here to many cities when he says, By opening, opened shall be the gates of your land to your enemies, and fire shall consume your bars.

He means that even though they had previously carefully fortified the whole land around, so that they thought themselves secure from all hostile invasion, yet all this would be useless, for the fire would consume all their bars. Here, the Prophet understands 'fire' metaphorically as the judgment of God. For as we see that the vehemence of fire is so great that it melts iron and brass, so the Prophet means that there would be no strength that could defend Nineveh and its empire against the hand of God.