2 He describeth the victories of the Chaldeans against the Assyrians.
1 The [a]destroyer is come before thy face: keep the munition: look to the way: make thy loins strong: increase thy strength mightily.
2 For the Lord hath [b]turned away the glory of Jacob, as the glory of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and [c]marred their vine branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is made red, [d]the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be as in the fire and flames in the day of his preparation, and [e]the fir trees shall tremble.
4 The chariots shall rage in the streets: they shall run to and fro in the highways: they shall seem like lamps: they shall shoot like the lightning.
5 [f]He shall remember his strong men: they shall stumble as they go: they shall make haste to the walls thereof, and the defense shall be prepared.
6 The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall melt.
7 And Huzzab the Queen shall be led away captive, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, smiting upon their breasts.
8 But Nineveh is [g]of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry: but none shall look back.
9 [h]Spoil ye the silver, spoil the gold: for there is none end of the store and glory of all the pleasant vessels.
10 [i]She is empty and void and waste, and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and sorrow is in all loins, and the faces [j]of them all gather blackness.
11 Where is the [k]dwelling of the lions, and the pasture of the lion’s whelps? where the lion and the lioness waked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid.
12 The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and worried for his lioness, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with spoil.
13 Behold, I come unto thee saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the [l]smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions, and I will cut off thy spoil from the earth, and the voice of thy [m]messengers shall no more be heard.
Footnotes
- Nahum 2:1 That is, Nebuchadnezzar is in readiness to destroy the Assyrians: and the Prophet derideth the enterprises of the Assyrians which prepared to resist him.
- Nahum 2:2 Seeing God hath punished his own people Judah and Israel, he will now punish the enemies by whom he scourged them, read Isa. 10:12.
- Nahum 2:2 Signifying, that the Israelites were utterly destroyed.
- Nahum 2:3 Both to fear the enemy, and also that they themselves should not so soon espy blood one of another to discourage them.
- Nahum 2:3 Meaning, their spears should shake and crash together.
- Nahum 2:5 Then the Assyrians shall seek by all means to gather their power, but all things shall fail them.
- Nahum 2:8 The Assyrians will flatter themselves and say, that Nineveh is so ancient that it can never perish, and is as a fishpool, whose waters they that walk on the banks cannot touch, but they shall be scattered, and shall not look back though men would call them.
- Nahum 2:9 God commandeth the enemies to spoil Nineveh, and promiseth them infinite riches and treasures.
- Nahum 2:10 That is, Nineveh, and the men thereof shall be after this sort.
- Nahum 2:10 Read Joel 2:6.
- Nahum 2:11 Meaning, Nineveh, whose inhabitants were cruel like the Lions, and given to all oppression, and spared no violence or tyranny to provide for their wives and children.
- Nahum 2:13 That is, as soon as my wrath beginneth to kindle.
- Nahum 2:13 Signifying the heralds, which were accustomed to proclaim war. Some read, of thy gum teeth, wherewith Nineveh was wont to bruise the bones of the poor.