Nahum 1:10

For while. — Better, For they shall be even as bundles of thorn fagots, and even while steeped in their drink they shall be burnt up like stubble fully dry. Dry thorn cuttings were commonly used as fuel. (See Psalms 58:9; Psalms 118:12; Ecclesiastes 7:6.) The verse compares the victims of Jehovah’s wrath, first, to a compact bundle of thorn fagots; secondly, to a material equally combustible, the dry straw and stubble of the threshing-floor. With regard to the words “while steeped in their drink,” it may be remarked that in the final siege of Nineveh a great defeat of its forces was effected by a surprise while the king and his captains were sunk in revelry (Diod. Sic. ii. 26). Benhadad, king of Syria, and Belshazzar, king of Babylon, were overcome under similar circumstances (1 Kings 1:16; Daniel 5:1). Feasting and revelry may have gone on in Sennacherib’s camp at the moment 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 to the metaphor a certain grim humour. Soaked in wine though the enemy be, he shall surely burn like driest fuel in the day of Jehovah’s fiery wrath. The opening clause of the verse is beset with difficulties, both grammatical and lexical. Kleinert renders “For in thorns they shall be entangled,” &c.; Ewald and Hitzig, “For even though they be compact as a wickerwork of thorns,” &c.