< Nahum 2 >
1 The destroyer is come up against thee to enclose [thee] with works of siege: look out on the way, make thy loins strong, strengthen [thyself] greatly with power.
2 For the Lord bringeth back again the excellency of Jacob, as also the excellency of Israel; for the plunderers have plundered them, and have wasted branches of their vines.
3 The shields of his mighty men are made red, the valiant men are [clothed] in scarlet: with the fire of the steel the chariots [glitter] on the day when he prepareth himself [for battle], and the spears are shaken.
4 In the streets the chariots rush madly along, they rattle through the public places: their appearance is like torches, they run along like the lightnings.
5 He will summon his valiant men, they shall stumble in their walk: they hasten to her walls, and the covering for defence is prepared.
6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved.
7 And the queen is carried away into exile stripped of her attire, and her maids moan as with the voice of doves, striking their hand upon their breast.
8 And Nineveh was like a pool of water from the days that she existed: yet now they flee. “Stand, stand,” [shall they cry, ] but none shall look back.
9 Plunder silver, plunder gold; for without end are the treasures, there is an abundance of all precious vessels.
10 She is void, and emptied out, and wasted; and the heart melteth, and the knees totter, and trembling is in all loins, and the faces of them all are covered with blackness.
11 Where is [now] the dwelling of the lions, and what was the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion, the lioness, and the lion's whelp walked, and none made them afraid?
12 The lion tore in pieces [prey] enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled with prey his holes, and his dens with what he had torn.
13 Behold, I will be against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn into smoke thy chariots, and thy young lions shall the sword devour: and I will cut off from the earth thy preying, and no more shall be heard the voice of thy messengers.
