Nahum 2:1-6

1 Your enemy is coming to crush you, Nineveh. Man the ramparts! Watch the roads! Prepare your defenses! Call out your forces!

2 Even though the destroyer has destroyed Judah, the LORD will restore its honor. Israel’s vine has been stripped of branches, but he will restore its splendor.

3 Shields flash red in the sunlight! See the scarlet uniforms of the valiant troops! Watch as their glittering chariots move into position, with a forest of spears waving above them.

4 The chariots race recklessly along the streets and rush wildly through the squares. They flash like firelight and move as swiftly as lightning.

5 The king shouts to his officers; they stumble in their haste, rushing to the walls to set up their defenses.

6 The river gates have been torn open! The palace is about to collapse!

Nahum 2:1-6 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]. Verses 2:1-13 are numbered 2:2-14 in Hebrew text.
• [b]. Greek and Syriac versions read into position, / the horses whipped into a frenzy.