Nahum 2
Contemporary English Version
Nineveh Will Fall
2 Nineveh, someone is coming
to attack and scatter you.
Guard your fortresses!
Watch the road! Be brave!
Prepare for battle!
2 Judah and Israel are like trees
with branches broken
by their enemies.
But the Lord is going to restore
their power and glory.
* 3 Nineveh, on this day of attack,
your enemies' shields are red;
their uniforms are crimson.
4 Their horses[a] prance,
and their armored[b] chariots
dart around like lightning
or flaming torches.
5 An officer gives a command.
But his soldiers stumble,
as they hasten to build
a shelter to protect themselves
against rocks thrown down
from the city wall.[c]
6 The river gates[d] fly open,
and panic floods the palace.
7 Nineveh is disgraced.
The queen is dragged off.
Her servant women mourn;
they moan like doves,
and they beat their breasts
in sorrow.[e]
8 Nineveh is like a pond
with leaking water.
Shouts of “Stop! Don't go!”
can be heard everywhere.
But everyone is leaving.
9 Enemy soldiers shout,
“The city is full of treasure
and all kinds of wealth.
Steal her silver! Grab her gold!”
10 Nineveh is doomed! Destroyed!
Her people tremble with fear;
their faces turn pale.[f]
11 What happened to this city?
They were safer there
than powerful lions in a den,
with no one to disturb them.
12 These are the same lions
that ferociously attacked
their victims,
then dragged away the flesh
to feed their young.
13 The Lord All-Powerful
is against you, Nineveh.
God will burn your chariots
and send an army to kill
those young lions of yours.
You will never again
make victims of others
or send messengers to threaten
everyone on this earth.
Footnotes
- 2.4 horses: Two ancient translations; Hebrew “spears.”
- 2.4 armored: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 2.5 to build … city wall: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 2.6 river gates: Nineveh was protected by a moat filled with water from the nearby Tigris River.
- 2.7 sorrow: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 7.
- 2.10 faces turn pale: Or “ashes cover their faces.”
Nahum 2
New King James Version
The Destruction of Nineveh
2 He[a] who scatters has come up before your face.
Man the fort!
Watch the road!
Strengthen your flanks!
Fortify your power mightily.
2 For the Lord will restore the excellence of Jacob
Like the excellence of Israel,
For the emptiers have emptied them out
And ruined their vine branches.
3 The shields of his mighty men are made red,
The valiant men are in scarlet.
The chariots come with flaming torches
In the day of his preparation,
And [b]the spears are brandished.
4 The chariots rage in the streets,
They jostle one another in the broad roads;
They seem like torches,
They run like lightning.
5 He remembers his nobles;
They stumble in their walk;
They make haste to her walls,
And the defense is prepared.
6 The gates of the rivers are opened,
And the palace is dissolved.
7 [c]It is decreed:
She shall be led away captive,
She shall be brought up;
And her maidservants shall lead her as with the voice of doves,
Beating their breasts.
8 Though Nineveh of old was like a pool of water,
Now they flee away.
[d]“Halt! Halt!” they cry;
But no one turns back.
9 [e]Take spoil of silver!
Take spoil of (A)gold!
There is no end of treasure,
Or wealth of every desirable prize.
10 She is empty, desolate, and waste!
The heart melts, and the knees shake;
Much pain is in every side,
And all their faces [f]are drained of color.
11 Where is the dwelling of the (B)lions,
And the feeding place of the young lions,
Where the lion walked, the lioness and lion’s cub,
And no one made them afraid?
12 The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs,
[g]Killed for his lionesses,
(C)Filled his caves with prey,
And his dens with [h]flesh.
13 “Behold, (D)I am against you,” says the Lord of hosts, “I will burn [i]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 (E)messengers shall be heard no more.”
Footnotes
- Nahum 2:1 Vg. He who destroys
- Nahum 2:3 Lit. the cypresses are shaken; LXX, Syr. the horses rush about; Vg. the drivers are stupefied
- Nahum 2:7 Heb. Huzzab
- Nahum 2:8 Lit. Stand
- Nahum 2:9 Plunder
- Nahum 2:10 LXX, Tg., Vg. gather blackness; Joel 2:6
- Nahum 2:12 Lit. Strangled
- Nahum 2:12 Torn flesh
- Nahum 2:13 Lit. her
Nahum 2
Wycliffe Bible
2 He went up, that shall scatter before thee, that shall keep [the] besieging; behold thou the way, comfort thou loins, strengthen thou virtue greatly. (He went up, who shall scatter thee, and shall make the siege, or the attack; look thou on the way, and strengthen thou thy loins, yea, greatly strengthen thou, or brace, thyselves.)
2 For as the Lord yielded the pride of Jacob, so the pride of Israel; for destroyers scattered them, and destroyed the generations of them. (For the Lord shall restore the pride of Jacob, and the pride of Israel; for the destroyers scattered them, and destroyed their generations, or their descendants.)
3 The shield(s) of strong men of him be fiery, men of the host be in red clothes; reins of fire of [the] chariot(s), in the day of his making ready; and the leaders thereof be asleep. (The shields of their strong men be painted fiery red, the men in their army be clothed in red clothes; the reins of the chariots flash like fire, on the day of their preparation for battle; and their leaders be on alert.)
4 In ways they be troubled together, carts of four horses be hurtled together in streets; the sight of them as lamps, as lightnings running about. (On the ways they make the people altogether troubled, or full of fear, yea, carts with four horses hurtle through the streets; they look like lamps, like lightning running about.)
5 He shall bethink of his strong men, they shall fall in their ways; and swiftly they shall go up on the walls thereof, and [the] shadowing place shall be made ready. (They shall call out their strong men, and they shall stumble as they hastily make their way forward; but they shall go up swiftly on the walls, and prepare the battering-rams for the siege.)
6 Gates of floods be opened, and the temple is broken down to [the] earth. (The gates by the river be opened, and the palace is broken into, and falleth down to the ground.)
7 And a knight is led away captive, and the handmaids thereof shall be driven sorrowing as culvers, grutching in their hearts. (And their horsemen be led away captive, and the slave-girls there be driven away, sorrowing like doves, grumbling in their hearts.)
8 And Nineveh, as a cistern of waters the waters thereof; forsooth they fled; Stand ye, stand ye, (they cried,) and there is not that shall turn again. (And so Nineveh was made like a water cistern, yea, like its water, as it fled away; Stand ye! stand ye in your place! they cried; but there was no one who turned back.)
9 Ravish ye silver, ravish ye gold; and there is none end of riches, of all desirable vessels. (Steal ye the silver, rob ye the gold; yea, there is no end of the riches, of all their desirable vessels.)
10 It is destroyed, and cut, and rent, (or torn), and heart failing, and unknitting of small knees, and failing in all reins; and the face of all be as (the) blackness of a pot.
11 Where is the dwelling of lions, and [the] pastures of whelps of lions? To which city the lion went, that the whelp of the lion should enter thither, and there is not that shall make afeared. (Where now is the lions’ den, and the pastures of the lion’s cubs? To which city the lion went in first, so that the lion’s cubs could enter in there afterward, and there would be no one who would make them afraid.)
12 The lion took enough to his whelps, and slew to his lionesses; and filled their dens with prey, and his couch with raven. (The lion took enough for his cubs, and killed prey for his lionesses; yea, he filled their dens with prey, and his lair with spoils.)
13 Lo! I to thee, saith the Lord God of hosts; and I shall burn thy carts of four horses till to the highest, and sword shall eat thy small lions (Lo! I am against thee, saith the Lord God of hosts; and I shall burn up thy carts with four horses unto smoke, and the sword shall eat thy small lions); and I shall destroy thy prey from the land, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.
Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
2001 by Terence P. Noble