Nahum 2:1-10

1 Nineveh, you are under attack! The power that will shatter you has come. Prepare the defenses! Guard the road! Prepare for battle

2 (The Lord is about to restore the glory of Israel, as it was before her enemies plundered her.)

3 The enemy soldiers carry red shields and wear uniforms of red. They are preparing to attack! Their chariots flash like fire! Their horses ^[a] prance!

4 Chariots dash wildly through the streets, rushing back and forth in the city squares. They flash like torches and dart about like lightning.

5 The officers are summoned; they stumble as they press forward. The attackers rush to the wall and set up the shield for the battering ram.

6 The gates by the river burst open; the palace is filled with terror.

7 The queen is taken captive; her servants moan like doves and beat their breasts in sorrow.

8 Like water from a broken dam the people rush from Nineveh! "Stop! Stop!" the cry rings out - but no one turns back.

9 Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! The city is full of treasure!

10 Nineveh is destroyed, deserted, desolate! Hearts melt with fear; knees tremble, strength is gone; faces grow pale.

Nahum 2:1-10 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] [Some ancient translations] horses; [Hebrew] cypresses.
• [b] [Probable text] Like water . . . Nineveh; [Hebrew unclear.]