The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Nahum 2
1 He who dashes in pieces has come up
against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the
way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your
power mightily!
2 For Yahweh restores the excellency of
Jacob as the excellency ofIsrael, for the
destroyers have destroyed them and ruined
their vine branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is made
red. The valiant men are in scarlet. The
chariots flash with steel in the day of his
preparation, and the pine spears are brandished.
4 The chariots rage in the streets. They
rush back and forth in the wide ways.
Their appearance is like torches. They run
like the lightnings.
5 He summons his picked troops. They
stumble ontheir way. They dash to its wall,
and the protective shield is put in place.
6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and
the palace is dissolved.
7 It is decreed: she is uncovered, she is
carried away; and her servants moan as
with the voice of doves, beating on their
breasts.
8 But Nineveh has been from of old like
a pool of water, yet they flee away. “Stop!
Stop!” they cry, but no one looks back.
9 Take the plunder of silver. Take the
plunder of gold, for there is no end of
treasure, an abundance of every precious
thing.
10 She is empty, void, and waste. The
heart melts, the knees knock together,
their bodies and faces have grown pale.
11 Where is the den of the lions, and the
feeding place ofthe young lions, where the
lion and the lioness walked with the lion’s
cubs, and no one made them afraid?
12 The lion tore in pieces enough for his
cubs, and strangled prey for his lionesses,
and filled his caves with the kill and his
dens with prey.
13 “Behold, I am against you,” says Yahweh
of Armies, “and I will burn her chariots
in the smoke, and the sword will devour
your young lions; and I will cut off
your prey from the earth, and the voice of
your messengers will no longer be heard.”