Nahum 2

The Destruction of the Wicked City

²A scatterer 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.)^*

³The 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^d prance.^*

⁴The chariots race madly through the streets;

they rush to and fro through the squares;

their appearance is like torches;

they dart like lightning.^*

⁵He calls his officers;

they stumble as they come forward;

they hasten to the wall,

and the screen^e is set up.

⁶The river gates are opened;

the palace trembles.

⁷It is decreed^f that the city^g be exiled,

its slave women led away,

moaning like doves

and beating their breasts.^*

⁸Nineveh is like a pool

whose waters^h 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!”

¹⁰Devastation, desolation, and destruction!

Hearts faint and knees tremble;

all loins quake;

all faces grow pale!^*

¹¹What became of the lions’ den,

the cave of the young lions,

where the lion goes,

and the lion’s cubs, with no one to disturb them?^*

¹²The 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.^*

¹³See, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will burn yourⁱ 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.^*