Nahum 2

1 A crusher has come up before your face: keep a good look-out, let the way be watched, make yourself strong, let your power be greatly increased.

It is all over with him, he has been removed, [one] who has been delivered from affliction has come up panting into thy presence, watch the way, strengthen [thy] loins, be very valiant in [thy] strength.

2 For the Lord will make good the vine of Jacob, as well as the vine of Israel: for the wasters have made them waste and sent destruction on the branches of their vine.

For the Lord has turned aside the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel: for they have utterly rejected them, and have destroyed their branches.

3 The body-covers of his fighting men have been made red, the men of war are clothed in bright red: the war-carriages are like flames of fire in the day when he gets ready, the horses are shaking.

[They have destroyed] the arms of their power from among men, their mighty men sporting with fire: the reins of their chariots [shall be destroyed] in the day of his preparation, and the horsemen shall be thrown into confusion

4 The war-carriages are rushing through the streets, pushing against one another in the wide ways, looking like burning lights, running like thunder-flames.

in the ways, and the chariots shall clash together, and shall be entangled in each other in the broad ways: their appearance is as lamps of fire, and as gleaming lightnings.

5 He takes the record of his great men: they go falling on their way; they go quickly to the wall, the cover is made ready.

And their mighty men shall bethink themselves and flee by day; and they shall be weak as they go; and they shall hasten to her walls, and shall prepare their defences.

6 The river doorways are forced open, and the king's house is flowing away.

The gates of the cities have been opened, and the palaces have fallen into ruin,

7 And the queen is uncovered, she is taken away and her servant-girls are weeping like the sound of doves, hammering on their breasts.

and the foundation has been exposed; and she has gone up, and her maid-servants were led [away] as doves moaning in their hearts.

8 But Nineveh is like a pool of water whose waters are flowing away; Keep your place, they say; but no one is turning back.

And [as for] Nineve, her waters [shall be] as a pool of water: and they fled, and staid not, and there was none to look back.

9 Take silver, take gold; for there is no end to the store; take for yourselves a weight of things to be desired.

They plundered the silver, they plundered the gold, and there was no end of their adorning; they were loaded [with it] upon all their pleasant vessels.

10 Everything has been taken from her, all is gone, she has nothing more: the heart is turned to water, the knees are shaking, all are twisted in pain, and colour has gone from all faces.

[There is] thrusting forth, and shaking, and tumult, and heart-breaking, and loosing of knees, and pangs on all loins; and the faces of all [are] as the blackening of a pot.

11 Where is the lions' hole, the place where the young lions got their food, where the lion and the she-lion were walking with their young, without cause for fear?

Where is the dwelling-place of the lions, and the pasture that belonged to the whelps? where did the lion go, that the lion's whelp should enter in there, and there was none to scare [him] away?

12 Food enough for his young and for his she-lions was pulled down by the lion; his hole was full of flesh and his resting-place stored with meat.

The lion seized enough prey for his whelps, and strangled for his [young] lions, and filled his lair with prey, and his dwelling-place with spoil.

13 See, I am against you, says the Lord of armies, and I will have your war-carriages burned in the smoke, and your young lions will be food for the sword: you will no longer get your food by force on the earth, and the voice of your she-lions will be stopped for ever.

Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord Almighty, and I will burn up thy multitude in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy lions; and I will utterly destroy thy prey from off the land, and thy deeds shall no more at all be heard of.