Nahum 2:1-8

1 The shatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; gird your loins; collect all your strength.

2 (For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have stripped them and ruined their branches.)

3 The shield of his mighty men is red, his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots flash like flame when mustered in array; the chargers prance.

4 The chariots rage in the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches, they dart like lightning.

5 The officers are summoned, they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall, the mantelet is set up.

6 The river gates are opened, the palace is in dismay;

7 its mistress is stripped, she is carried off, her maidens lamenting, moaning like doves, and beating their breasts.

8 Nin'eveh is like a pool whose waters run away. "Halt! Halt!" they cry; but none turns back.

Nahum 2:1-8 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.