There is a progression in the vision that drives home the terror of the Lord’s judgment. It starts with the distant sounds of the invading army, cracking whips, and rumbling wheels. As the army draws closer, sight joins sound and Nahum sees the galloping horses and bounding chariots until they are so close that he can see the individual horsemen with their flashing swords and glittering spears.
The aftermath is even more terrifying. The city is filled with heaps of dead bodies without end. There are so many that those who are still alive stumble over the dead.
This is exactly what Assyria’s victims had experienced in the past, but now they will experience it for themselves.
2 The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot!