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.
Nineveh! The destroyer has come up against you; mount guard upon the rampart; watch the road; brace yourselves; strengthen your might to the utmost.
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 is restoring the majesty of Jacob and of Israel, though the devastators have plundered them and destroyed their vines.
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.
The shields of his warriors are dyed red, his soldiers are clothed in scarlet, his chariots gleam like fire on the day he prepares for battle spears are shaken.
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.
Chariots rush across the fields, storm through the squares; they flame like torches, they dart like lightening.
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.
A leader rallies his nobles, they hurl themselves forward. They speed on toward the wall; the storming-shield is set up.
6 The river doorways are forced open, and the king's house is flowing away.
The water-gates are thrown open, and the palace dissolves in ruins.
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.
The queen is stripped, she is carried off. Her maids moan like doves, beating upon their breasts.
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.
Like a pool of water is Nineveh, her waters fast ebbing away. “Stand firm! Stand firm!” someone cries, but no one turns back.
9 Take silver, take gold; for there is no end to the store; take for yourselves a weight of things to be desired.
“Loot the silver, loot the gold, for there is no end to the treasure, the wealth and precious things.”
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.
Nineveh is empty, desolate, devastated, with faint heart and knocking knee. There is weakness in every limb, and faces grow pale.
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 now is the den of lions? Where now the lair of their young? Where the lion used to withdraw, with his cubs, with none to disturb them?
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 tore enough for his cubs, and strangled prey for his lionesses. He filled his caves with the kill, he filled his lairs with fresh meat.
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.
“But see, I am against you,” the Lord of hosts declares, “I will burn your chariots in smoke and fire. The sword will devour your young lions. You will never again prey on the land. No more will your messengers be heard.”
