נחום, פרק ג׳, פסוק י״ח

The mighty Assyrian empire faces its final collapse, its systems of government and military completely unraveling. In the king's moment of greatest distress, his military formation is paralyzed, the leadership vanishes, and the masses abandon the battlefield, left entirely without direction.

The leaders, advisors, and generals are completely helpless against the approaching enemy. It is as if they have fallen into a deep slumber, abandoning their responsibility to manage the war. Offering a different perspective, [אברבנאל] suggests that this deep sleep overtakes the king's own mind rather than his generals. His relentless thoughts of conquest and plunder, which once gave him no peace, suddenly go quiet and fall asleep.

Meanwhile, the mighty warriors and strongmen of the army remain sitting in their tents. They are perfectly still and refuse to go out to fight the enemy [אבן עזרא, מצודת דוד, מלבי״ם]. Taking a darker view, [רד״ק] explains that this stillness is actually the silence of the grave. These great heroes are like dead men who can no longer offer any help or rescue, or they simply lack the physical strength to even stand on their feet [רש״י].

With the leadership asleep or dead, the common soldiers react in different ways. The primary approach among commentators is that the troops simply scatter and disperse in every direction. However, other scholars [מצודת דוד, מצודת ציון, מלבי״ם] explain that the troops actively choose to stop fighting, seeking out rest and relaxation instead.

Because the leaders have fallen asleep, the soldiers are left wandering the mountains like a flock of sheep without a shepherd. There is no one left to gather them back to the battlefield [רד״ק, מלבי״ם]. Ultimately, the king of Assyria discovers that he cannot rely on his own men. In his deepest hour of crisis, his commanders and soldiers prefer their rest, scattering into the distance and abandoning him to his fate [ביאור שטיינזלץ].