Nahum 2:3-10

The Enemy Army Conquers the City of Nineveh

3 The shields of his warriors [are] dyed red; The powerful men [are] dressed in scarlet. The metal of the chariots^[a] [shines] like fire {on the day of battle},^[b] and [their] spears quiver.

4 The chariots^[c] race madly through the streets; they rush back and forth in the public squares. Their appearance like lightning bolts, they dart about like flashes of lightning.

5 He calls his officers; they stumble as they march; they rush to her wall; they set the covering in place.

6 The gates of the river are opened; the palace trembles.

7 {Her goddess is taken out and taken into exile}; her maidservants moan like doves; they beat on their breasts.

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.

Nahum 2:3-10 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]. Hebrew "chariot"
• [b]. Literally "on the day of his preparation"
• [c]. Hebrew "chariot"
• [d]. The Hebrew word describes a small portable roof to protect siege warriors from arrows and debris hurled at them from the fortified city wall
• [e]. Literally "It is decreed [that] she be exiled [and] led away." MT reads the very enigmatic "And he is placed, she is sent into exile, she is taken up." The BHS editors suggest the conjectural emendation "And her goddess [= the idol of the patron deity of Nineveh] is taken and taken into exile." This is adopted in the translation on the basis of internal evidence
• [f]. MT reads "from her days." Greek LXX and Syriac Peshitta reflect "from her waters"
• [g]. Literally "And they flee away"
• [h]. Literally "the supply"
• [i]. Literally "every kind of desirable object"
• [j]. Or "totter"
• [k]. Literally "And shaking of all loins"
• [l]. Literally "gather"