Nahum 2

1 A shatterer ^[a] has come up against you. Guard the ramparts; watch the road; gird your loins; collect all your strength.

2 (For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, though ravagers have ravaged them and ruined their branches.)

3 The shields of his warriors are red; his soldiers are clothed in crimson. The metal on the chariots flashes on the day when he musters them; the chargers ^[b] prance.

4 The chariots race madly through the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; their appearance is like torches, they dart like lightning.

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

6 The river gates are opened, the palace trembles.

7 It is decreed ^[d] that the city ^[e] 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 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.

Footnotes

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