Nahum 2:1–3:13

||He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face:

cKeep the munition, dwatch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.

2  ddFor the Lord hath turned away ||ethe excellency of Jacob,

As the excellency of Israel:

For gthe emptiers have emptied them out,

And hmarred their vine branches.

3  The shield of his mighty men is imade red,

The valiant men are ||kin scarlet:

The chariots shall be with ||flaming ltorches in the day of his preparation,

And the fir trees shall be mterribly shaken.

4  nThe chariots shall nnrage in the streets,

They shall ojustle one against another in the broad ways:

†They shall seem like torches,

They shall orun like the lightnings.

5  He shall recount his ||worthies:

pThey shall stumble in their walk;

They shall make haste to the wall thereof,

And the †defence shall be prepared.

6  rThe gates of the rivers shall be opened,

And the palace shall be ||sdissolved.

7  And ||uHuzzab shall be ||vled away captive, she shall be brought up,

And her maids shall lead her as with the voice of wdoves,

xTabering upon their breasts.

8  But yNineveh is ||of old like za pool of water:

Yet athey shall flee away.

Stand, stand, bshall they cry; but none shall ||clook back.

9  Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold:

||For there is none end of dthe store and glory out of all the †pleasant furniture.

10  eShe is empty, and void, and fwaste:

And gthe heart melteth, and hthe knees smite together,

And himuch pain is in all loins,

And kthe faces of them all gather blackness.

11  Where is the dwelling of lthe lions,

And the feedingplace of the lmyoung lions,

Where lnthe lion, even lmnthe old lion, walked,

And lnthe lion’s whelp, and onone made them afraid?

12  lpThe lion did tear in pieces enough qfor his whelps,

And strangled for his rlionesses,

And pfilled his holes swith prey,

And his dens with ravin.

13  tBehold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts,

And uI will burn her chariots in the smoke,

And the sword shall devour lthy young lions:

And I will cut off sthy prey from the earth,

And the voice of vthy messengers shall no more be heard.

3 Woe to the †abloody city!

It is all full of lies and robbery;

bThe prey departeth not;

2  The noise of a whip, and cthe noise of the rattling of the wheels,

And of the dpransing horses, and of the ejumping chariots.

3  The horseman lifteth up both †the bright sword and fthe glittering spear:

And gthere is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases;

And there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:

4  Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured hharlot,

iThe kmistress of lwitchcrafts,

That selleth nations through hher whoredoms,

And families through her lwitchcrafts.

5  mBehold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts;

And nI will discover thy skirts upon thy face,

And noI will shew the nations thy nakedness,

And the kingdoms opthy shame.

6  And ppI will cast abominable filth upon thee, and qmake thee vile,

And will set thee as ra gazingstock.

7  And it shall come to pass, that all they that rlook upon thee sshall flee from thee, and say,

tNineveh is laid waste: uwho will bemoan her?

vWhence shall I seek comforters for thee?

8  wArt thou better than ||†populous xNo,

That was situate among ythe rivers, that had the waters round about it,

Whose zrampart was athe sea, and her wall was from athe sea?

9  bcEthiopia and bEgypt were her strength, and dit was infinite;

ePut and bfLubim were †thy helpers.

10  gYet was she carried away, she went into captivity:

hHer young children also were dashed in pieces iat the top of all the streets:

And kthey cast lots for lher honourable men,

And all her great men were bound lin chains.

11  mThou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid,

Thou also shalt seek nstrength because of the enemy.

12  All thy strong holds shall be olike pfig trees with the firstripe figs:

If they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.

13  Behold, thy people in the midst of thee qrare women:

The gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies:

The fire shall devour thy rbars.