Nahum 2:10

10 Emptiness and plundering and devastation! Their hearts faint and their knees tremble, {All their loins shake} and all their faces {turn} pale.

Nahum 2:10 Meaning and Commentary

Nahum 2:10

She is empty, and void, and waste
The city of Nineveh, empty of inhabitants, being killed, or having fled; and stripped of all its treasures and riches by the enemies; its walls and houses demolished and pulled down, and laid in ruins, and become a heap of rubbish; (See Gill on Nahum 1:8). Various words are here used to ascertain and confirm the thing; and there is an elegant play on words or likeness of sounds, which our language will not express: and the heart melteth;
the heart of every inhabitant of Nineveh melted with fear at the approach of their enemies, their entrance into the city, and plunder of it; flowed like water, or melted like wax; see ( Psalms 22:14 ) : and the knees smite together;
like people in a fright, and when a panic has seized them; and as it was with Belshazzar, ( Daniel 5:6 ) : and much pain [is] in all loins;
like that of women in travail; or of persons in a sudden fright, which gives them a pain in their backs at once: and the faces of them all gather blackness;
like a pot, as the Targum adds; being in great distress and disconsolation, which make men appear in a dismal hue, and their countenances look very dark and gloomy; see ( Joel 2:6 ) .

Nahum 2:10 In-Context

8 Nineveh [is] like a pool of water without its water. {As they flee}, [she cries,] "Stop! Stop!" But there is no one who turns back.

9 Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! There is no end to the spoils, an abundance of {everything one could want}!

10 Emptiness and plundering and devastation! Their hearts faint and their knees tremble, {All their loins shake} and all their faces {turn} pale.

11 Where [now] [is] the den of [the] lions and [the] cave of the fierce lions? There the lioness, the cub, and the lion once {prowled}, {and no one disturbed them}.

12 The lion tore apart enough [prey] for his cubs, he strangled [prey] for his lioness; he filled {his lair} [with] prey and his den [with] mangled carcass.

Footnotes

• [a] Or "totter"
• [b] Literally "And shaking of all loins"
• [c] Literally "gather"