Nahum 2:3-13

English Standard Version

³ The shield of his mighty men is red;
    ^(A)his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
    on the day he musters them;
    the cypress spears are brandished.
^4 (B)The chariots race madly through the streets;
    they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
    they dart like lightning.
⁵ He remembers ^(C)his officers;
    ^(D)they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
    the siege tower^[a] is set up.
^6 (E)The river gates are opened;
    the palace ^(F)melts away;
⁷ its mistress^[b] is ^(G)stripped;^[c] she is carried off,
    her slave girls ^(H)lamenting,
moaning like doves
    and beating their breasts.
^8 (I)Nineveh is like a pool
    whose waters run away.^[d]
“Halt! Halt!” they cry,
    but ^(J)none turns back.
⁹ Plunder the silver,
    plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
    or of the wealth of all precious things.

^10 (K)Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
    ^(L)Hearts melt and ^(M)knees tremble;
^(N)anguish is in all loins;
    ^(O)all faces grow pale!
¹¹ Where is the lions' den,
    the feeding place of ^(P)the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
    where his cubs were, with ^(Q)none to disturb?
^12 (R)The lion tore enough for his cubs
    and ^(S)strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
    and his dens with torn flesh.