Nahum 2

The Destruction of Nineveh

1 ¹The scatterer has come up against you. ²Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle;^[a] collect all your strength.

2 For ³the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ⁴ruined their branches.

3 The shield of his mighty men is red; ⁵his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots come with flashing metal on the day he musters them; the cypress spears are brandished.

4 ⁶The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning.

5 He remembers ⁷his officers; ⁸they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall; the siege tower^[b] is set up.

6 ⁹The river gates are opened; the palace ¹⁰melts away;

7 its mistress^[c] is ¹¹stripped;^[d] she is carried off, her slave girls ¹²lamenting, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.

8 ¹³Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away.^[e] "Halt! Halt!" they cry, but ¹⁴none turns back.

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

10 ¹⁵Desolate! Desolation and ruin! ¹⁶Hearts melt and ¹⁷knees tremble; ¹⁸anguish is in all loins; ¹⁹all faces grow pale!

11 Where is the lions' den, the feeding place of ²⁰the young lions, where the lion and lioness went, where his cubs were, with ²¹none to disturb?

12 ²²The lion tore enough for his cubs and ²³strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

13 ²⁴Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and ²⁵I will burn your^[f] chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and ²⁶the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.

Nahum 2 Commentary

Chapter 2

Nineveh's destruction foretold. (1-10) The true cause, their sinning against God, and his appearing against them. (11-13)

Verses 1-10 Nineveh shall not put aside this judgment; there is no counsel or strength against the Lord. God looks upon proud cities, and brings them down. Particular account is given of the terrors wherein the invading enemy shall appear against Nineveh. The empire of Assyria is represented as a queen, about to be led captive to Babylon. Guilt in the conscience fills men with terror in an evil day; and what will treasures or glory do for us in times of distress, or in the day of wrath? Yet for such things how many lose their souls!

Verses 11-13 The kings of Assyria had long been terrible and cruel to their neighbours, but the Lord would destroy their power. Many plead as an excuse for rapine and fraud, that they have families to provide for; but what is thus obtained will never do them any good. Those that fear the Lord, and get honestly what they have, shall not want for themselves and theirs. It is just with God to deprive those of children, or of comfort in them, who take sinful courses to enrich them. Those are not worthy to be heard again, that have spoken reproachfully of God. Let us then come to God upon his mercy-seat, that having peace with him through our Lord Jesus Christ, we may know that he is for us, and that all things shall work together for our everlasting good.

Cross References

• 1. [Jeremiah 51:20]
• 2. [Jeremiah 51:12]
• 3. [Isaiah 37:31]
• 4. See Psalms 80:8-13; Isaiah 5:1-7
• 5. [Ezekiel 23:14, 15]
• 6. [Nahum 3:2]
• 7. Nahum 3:18
• 8. Jeremiah 46:12
• 9. [Isaiah 45:1]
• 10. [Isaiah 14:31]
• 11. [Isaiah 22:8]
• 12. Isaiah 38:14
• 13. See Nahum 1:1
• 14. Jeremiah 46:5
• 15. See Zephaniah 2:13-15
• 16. Psalms 22:14; Isaiah 13:7
• 17. Daniel 5:6
• 18. Isaiah 21:3
• 19. Joel 2:6
• 20. Isaiah 5:29; Jeremiah 2:15
• 21. See Isaiah 17:2
• 22. [Ezekiel 19:3]
• 23. [ver. 9; Nahum 3:1]
• 24. Nahum 3:5; [Zephaniah 2:5]; See Ezekiel 13:8
• 25. [Psalms 46:9]
• 26. [2 Kings 19:9, 23]

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew gird your loins
• [b]. Or the mantelet
• [c]. The meaning of the Hebrew word rendered its mistress is uncertain
• [d]. Or exiled
• [e]. Compare Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
• [f]. Hebrew her

Chapter Summary

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.