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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
2:10-12 A Taunting Song Portraying Nineveh's Destruction Because of the City's Lust for Conquest. These verses figuratively portray the obliteration of Nineveh, the extinction of Assyrian nobility, and the termination of Assyrian power.
2:10 Desolate . . . ruin is a description of Nineveh emptied of inhabitants (due to their fleeing, slaughter, or captivity) and destroyed by the victorious invaders (after they have finished their plundering). Hearts melt . . . pale. The Assyrians, who previously had been proud of how they terrorized other peoples, now experience extreme terror.
2:11-12 lions. Members of the Assyrian royal house (and perhaps aristocracy), headed by the king. The lion was a symbol for kingship in the ancient Near East (cf. Gen. 49:9); the Assyrian kings exhibited ferocity in their attacking and "devouring" other lands, and called themselves lions. Reliefs on palace walls depicted lions being hunted by the Assyrian rulers. none to disturb. During the time of Assyrian might, no other nation dared to, or could, attack Nineveh. There was none to terrify those in the city, and particularly the household of the king. enough . . . prey . . . torn flesh. I.e., the vast amounts of plunder taken by the "ravenous" Assyrians from their brutal, bloody conquest of numerous lands.
