Nahum — Chapter 2

Ascendit qui dispergit coram te

'He is come up who scattereth before thy face.' À Lapide identifies the scatterer as the Babylonian-Median coalition that sacked Nineveh. He draws on classical sources (Diodorus Siculus, Ctesias) alongside the biblical text. The prophecy's detailed accuracy—the flooding of the river, the palace's dissolution—is used as an apologetic demonstration of the supernatural character of biblical prophecy.

Ubi est habitaculum leonum

'Where is now the dwelling place of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions?' The lion imagery inverts Amos 3:4 and Genesis 49:9: Nineveh, once the lion devouring nations, lies empty and silent. À Lapide notes the irony: the lion that roared is now the hunted. The typological application is to the devil, who was like a roaring lion (1 Pet. 5:8) but was defeated by the Lion of Judah.