Nahum 2:5-13

5 He calls his officers; they stumble as they come forward; they hasten to the wall, and the mantelet ^[a] is set up.

6 The river gates are opened, the palace trembles.

7 It is decreed ^[b] that the city ^[c] be exiled, its slave women led away, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.

8 Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. "Halt! Halt!"— but no one turns back.

9 "Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of treasure! An abundance of every precious thing!"

10 Devastation, desolation, and destruction! Hearts faint and knees tremble, all loins quake, all faces grow pale!

11 What became of the lions' den, the cave of the young lions, where the lion goes, and the lion's cubs, with no one to disturb them?

12 The lion has torn enough for his whelps and strangled prey for his lionesses; he has filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

13 See, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall be heard no more.

Nahum 2:5-13 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Meaning of Heb uncertain
• [b]. Meaning of Heb uncertain
• [c]. Heb [it]
• [d]. Cn Compare Gk: Heb [a pool, from the days that she has become, and they]
• [e]. Cn: Heb [pasture]
• [f]. Heb [her]