Nahum 2:1-3:19

Nineveh to Fall 1In Hebrew texts 2:1-13 is numbered 2:2-14. An attacker advances against you, Nineveh. Guard the fortress, watch the road, brace yourselves, marshal all your strength!

2The LORD will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, though destroyers have laid them waste and have ruined their vines.

3The shields of the soldiers are red; the warriors are clad in scarlet. The metal on the chariots flashes on the day they are made ready; the spears of juniper are brandished. Hebrew; Septuagint and Syriac ready; / the horsemen rush to and fro.

4The chariots storm through the streets, rushing back and forth through the squares. They look like flaming torches; they dart about like lightning.

5Nineveh summons her picked troops, yet they stumble on their way. They dash to the city wall; the protective shield is put in place.

6The river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses.

7It is decreed The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. that Nineveh be exiled and carried away. Her female slaves moan like doves and beat on their breasts.

8Nineveh is like a pool whose water is draining away. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one turns back.

9Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! The supply is endless, the wealth from all its treasures!

10She is pillaged, plundered, stripped! Hearts melt, knees give way, bodies tremble, every face grows pale.

11Where now is the lions’ den, the place where they fed their young, where the lion and lioness went, and the cubs, with nothing to fear?

12The lion killed enough for his cubs and strangled the prey for his mate, filling his lairs with the kill and his dens with the prey. 13“I am against you,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will burn up your chariots in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will leave you no prey on the earth. The voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”

Woe to Nineveh 1Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!

2The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots!

3Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses—

4all because of the wanton lust of a prostitute, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.

5“I am against you,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame.

6I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.

7All who see you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for her?’ Where can I find anyone to comfort you?”

8Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall.

9Cush That is, the upper Nile region and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were among her allies.

10Yet she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at every street corner. Lots were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains.

11You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy.

12All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.

13Look at your troops— they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates.

14Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork!

15There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down— they will devour you like a swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, multiply like locusts!

16You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away.

17Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day— but when the sun appears they fly away, and no one knows where.

18King of Assyria, your shepherds That is, rulers slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them. 19Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?