Nahum 2
Common English Bible
A city under attack
2 A scatterer has come up against you.
Guard the ramparts, watch the road,
protect your groin, save your[a] strength!
2 The Lord will restore the pride of Jacob,
indeed, the pride of Israel,
because ravagers have destroyed
them and spoiled their branches.
3 The shields of his warriors are red;
his soldiers are dressed in crimson.
The ironwork of the chariots flashes like fire
on the day he has prepared;
the horses quiver.
4 The chariots race wildly through the streets;
they rush back and forth through the squares.
They look like flaming torches;
they dart like bolts of lightning.
5 He musters his officers;
they stumble as they press forward.
They hurry to the city wall,
and the portable shield is set up.
6 The gates of the rivers are opened;
the palace melts.
7 It is decreed:[b] She is sent into exile, carried away,
while her female servants moan like doves, beating their breasts.
8 Nineveh has been like a pool of water.
Such are its waters,[c] and others are fleeing.
“Stop, stop!”—but no one can turn them back.
9 Plunder silver! Plunder gold!
There is no end to the supplies,
an abundance of precious objects!
10 Destruction and devastation;
the city is laid waste!
The heart grows faint and knees buckle;
there is anguish in every groin;
all the faces grow pale.
Cruel Nineveh will be destroyed
11 Where is the lions’ den, the meadow of the young lions,
where lion, lioness, even lion cub go about with no one to terrify them?
12 The lion has torn enough prey
for his cubs and strangled enough for his lionesses;
he has filled his lairs with prey,
his dens with torn flesh.
13 Look! I am against you, proclaims the Lord of heavenly forces.
I will burn your[d] chariots in smoke;
the sword will devour your young lions;
I will cut off your prey from the earth,
the voice of your messengers will never again be heard!
Footnotes
- Nahum 2:1 Heb lacks your.
- Nahum 2:7 Heb uncertain
- Nahum 2:8 Heb uncertain
- Nahum 2:13 Or her
Nahum 2
The Voice
2 Nineveh, an attacker is moving in to scatter you.
You had better guard your fortress,
Keep watch up and down your streets,
strap your war belt around your waist,
And gather all the strength you can.
2 The Eternal One will restore all the glory given to Jacob;
the new nation will resemble the splendor of Israel in its day,
Although destroyers destroyed everything,
even decimating every branch of Jacob’s family tree.
3 Here comes your attacker’s best warriors with gleaming red shields;
the soldiers are in scarlet armor.
Chariots gleam and flash like fire with their approach.
They were carefully made ready for battle.
They taunt you by waving strong spears before you.[a]
4 See the chariots race each other up and down your streets,
rushing back and forth through the city.
They look like flaming torches.
They dart like lightning bolts.
5 Your king remembers his specially-trained forces,
but they can’t get it together, stumbling as they march.
They run to protect the city wall
and try to shield it from the attackers. Their resistance fails.
Nineveh has hundreds of towers along her walls, some up to 200 feet in height, but before the judgment of God they will dissolve.
6 The city gates at the rivers are thrown wide open,
and the palace collapses in the resulting flood.
7 A decree is set and goes out: Nineveh will be ransacked.
She is stripped and will be carried far away from home.
You can hear the young girls pounding their breaking hearts
and moaning like terrified doves.
8 Nineveh was a shimmering pool of water, full to the brim in the days of her glory,
but look, her soldiers are draining away.
“Stop! Stop!” the Assyrian commanders shout,
but no one turns back. The destruction continues.
9 The attacker commands, “Take all the silver;
take all the gold!
The supply is endless.
After all, their treasury is full of stolen wealth.”
10 Every corner of the city is turned upside down, ransacked, stripped bare.
She will lose all hope; her knees give way;
she will shake with fear and turn white as a sheet.
11 Where now is Nineveh’s famous and deadly lion’s den?
The place where they nourish their young lions into killing machines?
The place where the lion and the lioness go, along with their cubs, to feed on victims?
The place where they had nothing to fear?
12 The lion always kills enough for his cubs
and strangles the prey for his mate,
Filling up the lair with the blood and bones and flesh of its kill
and his dens with the fallen prey.
13 Eternal One: I stand against you, Nineveh!
I will command My heavenly army to burn up your chariots till the smoke rises up
And to consume your young lions with the sword.
I will leave nothing in the land to sustain you.
The voice of your messengers will never again be heard.
Footnotes
- 2:3 Other manuscripts read, “the horsemen rush back and forth.”
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.