Nahum 2
Revised Geneva Translation
2 The destroyer has come before your face. Man the ramparts! Watch the road! Harden yourselves! Increase your strength mightily!
2 For the LORD has turned away the glory of Jacob, as the glory of Israel. For the emptiers have emptied them out and marred their vine branches.
3 The shields of His mighty men are made red. The valiant men are in scarlet. The chariots are afire, flaming on the day of His preparation. And the fir trees shall tremble.
4 The chariots shall rage in the streets. They shall run to and fro on the highways. They shall seem like lamps. They shall shoot like lightning.
5 He shall remember His strong men. They shall stumble as they go. They shall hurry to its walls. And the defense shall be prepared.
6 The gates of the rivers shall be opened. And the palace shall melt.
7 And Huzzab shall be led away captive. And her maids shall lead, as with the voice of doves, striking upon their breasts.
8 Though Nineveh was of old like a pool of water, now they shall flee away. “Stand! Stand!” shall they cry. But no one shall look back.
9 Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! For there is no end to the treasure and glory of all the pleasant vessels!
10 She is empty and void and laid waste. And the heart melts. And the knees strike together. And sorrow is in all loins. And the faces of them all gather heat.
11 Where is the dwelling of the lions and the pasture of the lion’s whelps, where the lion and the lioness awakened, and the lion’s whelp, and no one made them afraid?
12 The lion tore enough in pieces for his whelps, and worried for his lioness, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with spoil.
13 “Behold, I come to you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will burn her chariots in the smoke. And the sword shall devour your young lions. And I will cut off your spoil from the Earth. And the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.”
Nahum 2
New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition
The Destruction of the Wicked City
2 A shatterer[a] has come up against you.
Guard the ramparts;
watch the road;
gird your loins;
collect all your strength.
2 (For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob,
as well as the majesty of Israel,
though ravagers have ravaged them
and ruined their branches.)
3 The shields of his warriors are red;
his soldiers are clothed in crimson.
The metal on the chariots flashes
on the day when he musters them;
the chargers[b] prance.
4 The chariots race madly through the streets,
they rush to and fro through the squares;
their appearance is like torches,
they dart like lightning.
5 He calls his officers;
they stumble as they come forward;
they hasten to the wall,
and the mantelet[c] is set up.
6 The river gates are opened,
the palace trembles.
7 It is decreed[d] that the city[e] be exiled,
its slave-women led away,
moaning like doves
and beating their breasts.
8 Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters[f] run away.
‘Halt! Halt!’—
but no one turns back.
9 ‘Plunder the silver,
plunder the gold!
There is no end of treasure!
An abundance of every precious thing!’
10 Devastation, desolation, and destruction!
Hearts faint and knees tremble,
all loins quake,
all faces grow pale!
11 What became of the lions’ den,
the cave[g] of the young lions,
where the lion goes,
and the lion’s cubs, with no one to disturb them?
12 The lion has torn enough for his whelps
and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he has filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.
13 See, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your[h] 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 messengers shall be heard no more.
Footnotes
- Nahum 2:1 Cn: Heb scatterer
- Nahum 2:3 Cn Compare Gk Syr: Heb cypresses
- Nahum 2:5 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- Nahum 2:7 Meaning of Heb uncertain
- Nahum 2:7 Heb it
- Nahum 2:8 Cn Compare Gk: Heb a pool, from the days that she has become, and they
- Nahum 2:11 Cn: Heb pasture
- Nahum 2:13 Heb her
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