Nahum 2:3

Nahum again focused on the destroyer (scatterer) of Nineveh (cf. Nahum 2:1). He described the siege and capture of Nineveh. The shields and uniforms of the soldiers who invaded Nineveh would be red. This was, really, a favorite color of the Median and Babylonian armies (cf. Ezekiel 23:14). [Note: Feinberg, p. 136.] However, they may have been red with blood and or from the copper that they used to cover both shields and uniforms. [Note: Johnson, p. 1500] Nahum saw the invading chariots flashing with steel. Scythed chariots were in use at this time in the ancient Near East, chariots with steel blades protruding from them and their wheels. [Note: Feinberg, p. 136.] Spears made out of cypress (pine) were long and straight, and Nineveh’s invaders would brandish them showing their readiness for battle. [Note: See also Yigael Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, pp. 4-5, 294-95, 452.]