Nahum 3:3


3 The charioteers
tn Heb “a horseman.” While the Hebrew term פָּרָס (paras) can also denote “horse” (1 Sam 8:11; Joel 2:4; Hab 1:8; Jer 46:4), the Hiphil participle מַעֲלֶה (maʾaleh, “cause to charge”) requires a human agent, clarifying that here פָּרָס refers here to “horsemen” charging their horses (2 Sam 1:6; 1 Kgs 20:20; Jer 4:29; 46:4) cf. HALOT 830 s.v. עָלָה.
will charge ahead;
tn The term מַעֲלֶה (maʿaleh; the Hiphil participle “cause to charge”) refers to charioteers bringing war-horses up to a charge or attack (e.g., Jer 46:9; 51:27). The ASV renders as the “[the horseman] mounting,” but this should be the Qal, while the KJV views the horseman as raising the sword and the spear, for which one would not expect the conjunction vav (ו) to begin the first direct object.

their swords
tn Heb “a sword.”
will flash
tn Heb “flash of a sword.” Alternately, “swords flash.” Although לַהַב (lahav) can mean “blade” (Judg 3:22; 1 Sam 17:7), it means “flash [of the sword]” here (e.g., Hab 3:11; see HALOT 520 s.v.) as suggested by its parallelism with וּבְרַק (uveraq, “flashing, gleaming point [of the spear]”); cf. Job 20:25; Deut 32:41; Hab 3:11; Ezek 21:15.

and their spears
tn Heb “a spear.”
will glimmer!
tn Heb “and flash of a spear.” Alternately, “spears glimmer” (HALOT 162 s.v. בָּרָק).

There will be many people slain;
tn Heb “many slain.”

there will be piles of the dead
and countless casualties
tc The MT reads לַגְּוִיָּה (laggeviyyah, “to the dead bodies”). The LXX reflects לְגוֹיָה (legoyah, “to her nations”) which arose due to confusion between the consonant ו (vav) and the vowel וֹ (holem-vav) in an unpointed text.
tn Heb “There is no end to the dead bodies.”

so many that people
tn Heb “they.”
will stumble over the corpses.
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