Nahum 2:5

"He remembereth his nobles: they stumble in their march; they make haste to the wall thereof, and the mantelet is prepared."

Like this whole passage, Nahum 2:5 is impressionistic: "remembereth his nobles" shows the king's hasty call for battle as the flood descended upon them and the attack was renewed; "stumble in their walk" appears to be a description of the drunken state of those who should have been able to defend the city. "Half-drunken, they totter and stumble as they hasten to the walls of the city."[18]

"The mantelet is prepared ..." Scholars do not agree on what the mantelet was, perhaps a "battering ram" if the reference is to an engine of the attackers, or "some defensive device" if the besieged prepared it. The thought is starkly clear. The great engines of warfare are brought into action. "Whether mantelet (on the side of the besiegers), or bulwark (on the side of the besieged) is uncertain."[19]