Nahum 2:1-11

1 The shatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; gird your loins; collect all your strength.

2 (For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have stripped them and ruined their branches.)

3 The shield of his mighty men is red, his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots flash like flame when mustered in array; the chargers prance.

4 The chariots rage in the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches, they dart like lightning.

5 The officers are summoned, they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall, the mantelet is set up.

6 The river gates are opened, the palace is in dismay;

7 its mistress is stripped, she is carried off, her maidens lamenting, moaning like doves, and beating their breasts.

8 Nin'eveh is like a pool whose waters run away. "Halt! Halt!" they cry; but none turns back.

9 Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of treasure, or wealth of every precious thing.

10 Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts faint and knees tremble, anguish is on all loins, all faces grow pale!

11 Where is the lions' den, the cave of the young lions, where the lion brought his prey, where his cubs were, with none to disturb?

Nahum 2:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NAHUM 2

This chapter gives an account of the destruction of the city of Nineveh; describes the instruments of it as very terrible and powerful, and not to be resisted, Na 2:1-4. The manner of taking it, the flight of its inhabitants, and the spoil of its riches and treasures, Na 2:5-10 and the king and the princes thereof, compared to a lion, and a lion's whelp, are insulted as being without a den or dwelling place, because of their cruelty and ravening, for which the Lord was against them, and threatened them with utter ruin, which he brought upon them, Na 2:11-13.