Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

The Lord will smite "Will the Lord humble" - ταπεινωσει, Septuagint; and so Syriac and Chaldee. For שפח sippach they read שפל shaphal. Instead of יהוה Yehovah, many MSS. have אדני Adonai. Will discover their secret parts "Expose their nakedness" - It was the barbarous custom of the conquerors of those times to strip their captives naked, and to make them travel in that condition, exposed to the inclemency of the weather; and the worst of all, to the intolerable heat of the sun. But this to the women was the height of cruelty and indignity; and especially to such as those here described, who had indulged themselves in all manner of delicacies of living, and all the superfluities of ornamental dress; and even whose faces had hardly ever been exposed to the sight of man. This is always mentioned as the hardest part of the lot of captives. Nahum, Nah 3:5, Nah 3:6, denouncing the fate of Nineveh, paints it in very strong colors: - "Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah, God of hosts: And I will discover thy skirts upon thy face; And I will expose thy nakedness to the nations; And to the kingdoms thy shame. And I will throw ordures upon thee; And I will make thee vile, and set thee as a gazing-stock."