Nineveh was located on the east bank of the Tigris River and was protected both by the river itself and by a series of walls and moats. It is not certain exactly what The river gates (Revised Standard Version, New American Bible, New International Version) refer to. They may be the “sluices” (New English Bible), or gates which controlled the flow of water through the moats. If the sluices were captured by the attackers, it could either mean that the water was diverted away from the moats and the enemy could therefore approach closer to the walls (Lehrman), or else that the water was somehow released into the city, causing damage by flooding (New English Bible, New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible). It is not necessary to state which effect is in mind. Good News Translation simply gives the bare fact as “The gates by the river burst open.” However, if the translator decides that the subject of the passive construction opened is “the attackers,” this sentence may be rendered “They open the sluices on the river” or “The enemy opens the gates that control the waters of the river.”

The palace is in dismay: the Hebrew says literally “the palace is dissolved” (Revised Version). This may refer to the result of a supposed flood which caused the palace to collapse physically (New English Bible, New International Version, Bible en français courant), or it may refer to the psychological effect on the people who lived in the palace (Revised Standard Version, Jerusalem Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Good News Translation follows this second interpretation and says “the palace is filled with terror.” It will be helpful in many languages to provide a subject for “filled with terror” and translate as “the people in the palace are filled with terror” or “the people in the palace are shaking with fear.” Dismay (Good News Translation “terror”) in some languages is described with idiomatic expressions; for example, “The people in the palace, their souls flee and bile stirs up so that they shake all over.”

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A . A Handbook on the Book of Nahum. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1989. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .