Nahum 3:13

Behold, thy people in the midst of thee [are] women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire shall devour thy bars.

Ver. 13. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women] i.e. Fearful and faint hearted; ‘ Aχηιδες ουκετ Aχαιοι. See Isa 3:12 Jeremiah 51:30; Jeremiah 48:41. And this in the midst of thee, where they should be most valiant, like cocks on their own dunghills, as they say. Lo, those that formerly faced the heavens, and, by a cyclopical kind of impiety, slighted God, and dared the devil to a duel, how crestfallen they are and courageless when the enemy is upon them; the noise of a driven leaf frightens them, Leviticus 26:36; a panic terror seizes upon them, as it did once upon the Syrians, 2 Kings 7:15, and upon the Imperialists, in the war against the Hussites, so that they could not strike a stroke; and upon the Burgundians, who, expecting a battle, thought long thistles were lances, and turned their backs, with those Ephraimites, Psalms 78:9. It is God that puts mettle into men, that strengthens or weakens the arm of either party, Ezekiel 30:24. These lions, as they are called Nahum 2:12, that formerly rushing out of Nineveh, their den, filled it with ravine, tearing and spoiling all they met with, are now become harts and stags; that have great horns, but do nothing with them, quia deest animus, because they lack courage; or as those Eretrians, of whom Themistocles said, that they were like the sword fish, that had a sword indeed, but not a heart to make use of it (Plutarch).

The gates of thy land shall be set wide open] Thy frontier towns and five ports, those keys of the kingdom, aperiendo aperientur, shall open to give the enemy entrance; as at the siege of Jerusalem the iron gate opened of its own accord.

The fire shall devour thy barns] Because God, who is a consuming fire, shall remove out of the enemies' way all obstacles and impediments; so that all shall be pervious and patent to them. Fire God had threatened once before, Nahum 2:13, and it may very well be that the gates were fired without a metaphor. See Nahum 3:15 .