John Calvin Commentary Nahum 3:2-3

"The noise of the whip, and the noise of the rattling of wheels, and prancing horses, and bounding chariots, the horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, and the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies; they stumble upon their bodies;-" — Nahum 3:2-3 (ASV)

The Prophet represents here, as in a vivid picture, what was near for the Assyrians; for he describes the Chaldeans, their enemies, with all their preparations and in their quick movements. The sound of the whip, he says; the whips made a noise in exciting the horses; the sound of the rattling of the wheel; that is, great will be the haste and swiftness when the horses are forced on by the whip; the horse also shaking the earth, and the chariot bounding; the horseman making it to ascend; and then, the flame of the sword and the lightning of the spear. He then says that there will be such a slaughter that the whole place will be full of dead bodies.

We now understand then what the Prophet means: for as Nineveh might have then appeared impregnable, the Prophet confirms in detail what he had said of its approaching ruin, and thus sets before the eyes of the Israelites what was then incredible.

As for the words, some interpreters connect what we have translated as, the horseman makes to ascend, with what follows—that is, he makes to ascend the flame of the sword and the lightning of the spear. But as a connecting word comes between, it seems rather to be an incomplete sentence, meaning that the horseman makes his horses ascend or mount by urging them on.

Regarding the word להב, leb, it means, I have no doubt, a flame. This word, I know, is also understood metaphorically as the brightness of swords, which appears like a flame; but the Prophet immediately adds lightning. Since he then says that spears lighten, I do not doubt that for the same reason he meant to say that swords flame. All these things were intended to fully convince the Israelites that Nineveh, however much it was supplied with wealth and power, was nevertheless approaching its ruin, for its enemies would prevail against it. Therefore, he adds that all the roads would be full of dead bodies, so that the enemies could not enter without treading on them everywhere.