“At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale.”

The horror of the situation had finally sunk in. These marauders will stop human life in its tracks and there will be death and judgment for certain from the arrival of these unwanted invaders. Like the attack of an occupying army they will strip all bare and rape and pillage the land of all living greenery.

The people are finally seeing their fate and are in anguish about the future. The blood drains from their skin and they experience real and terrible dread. They are finally seeing what the prophet had been telling them and the warnings he has spoken that have fallen on deaf ears, are now heeded, but it is too late.

“She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.”

Nahum 2:10

Some translations translate the face that grows pale, as growing in darkness, a sign of impending death. Altogether it is a dreadful scene as people realise too late that they have rejected the warnings and now face the unthinkable consequences.