Nahum 3:19

Clap the hands over thee. — All that hear the “bruit” or report of the fall of Nineveh clap their hands with joy (Psalms 47:1), for where has not her oppressive rule been felt? The verse is addressed to the king (second person masculine) as the representative of the empire, perhaps also in view of his terrible end. The cruelty of the Ninevite régime is illustrated, as Kleinert remarks, in the sculptures, “by the rows of the impaled, the prisoners through whose lips rings were fastened, whose eyes were put out, who were flayed alive. Consequently it would be a joy to all nations to hear the voice of the messengers of the tyrant no more (Nahum 2:13), but to hear that of the messengers of his destruction.”