Nahum 2
1 [You people of] [APO] Nineveh, your enemies are coming to attack you. [So] place guards on the tops of the walls around the city! Guard the roads [into the city]! Get ready to fight! Gather your troops/soldiers [MTY] together!
He is come up that shall destroy before thy face, that shall keep the siege: watch the way, fortify thy loins, strengthen thy power exceedingly.
2 Even though enemy soldiers have destroyed the descendants of [MTY] Jacob, Yahweh will cause them to be honored again. Israel is like a grapevine that has been ruined, but Israel will prosper again.
For the Lord hath rendered the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel: because the spoilers have laid them waste, and have marred their vine branches.
3 The shields of the enemy soldiers [who are coming to attack you] will shine red [as the sun shines on them], and they will wear bright red uniforms. The metal of their chariot [wheels] will flash when they line up [before the battle], and their soldiers will lift up their cypress/pine spears and wave them.
The shield of his mighty men is like fire, the men of the army are clad in scarlet, the reins of the chariot are flaming in the day of his preparation, and the drivers are stupefied.
4 Their chariots will dash through the streets [of Nineveh] and rush furiously through the plazas. Going as quick as lightning, they will resemble flaming torches.
They are in confusion in the ways, the chariots jostle one against another in the streets: their looks are like torches, like lightning running to and fro.
5 [Meanwhile], your king will summon his officers who will stumble as they [try to] come [quickly]. They will dash to the [city] wall, holding their shields to protect themselves.
He will muster up his valiant men, they shall stumble in their march: they shall quickly get upon the walls thereof: and a covering shall be prepared.
6 But, the gates [of the dams] on the rivers will be thrown open [by enemy soldiers], and [the flood will cause] the palace to collapse.
The gates of the rivers are opened, and the temple is thrown down to the ground.
7 The queen will have her clothes stripped off her [by enemy soldiers], and her slave girls will moan like doves and beat their breasts [to show that they are very sad].
And the soldier is led away captive: and her bondwomen were led away mourning as doves, murmuring in their hearts.
8 [The people will rush from] Nineveh like [SIM] water rushes from a broken dam. [The officials] will shout, “Stop! Stop!” but the people will not even look back [as they run away].
And as for Ninive, her waters are like a great pool, but the men flee away. They cry: Stand, stand, but there is none that will return back.
9 [The enemy attackers say to each other, ] “Seize the silver! Grab the gold! There is a huge amount of very valuable things in this city, more valuable things than anyone can count!”
Take ye the spoil of the silver, take the spoil of the gold: for there is no end of the riches of all the precious furniture.
10 [Soon everything valuable in the city] will be seized or ruined. People will be trembling, with the result that they will not be able to fight. Their faces will all become pale.
She is destroyed, and rent, and torn: the heart melteth, and the knees fail, and all the loins lose their strength: and the faces of them all are as the blackness of a kettle.
11 [After that happens, people will say, ] “What happened to [RHQ] that [great city of Nineveh]? [It was like] [MET] a den [full] of young lions, where the male and female lions lived and fed the young ones.
Where is now the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, to which the lion went, to enter in thither, the young lion, and there was none to make them afraid?
12 [The soldiers in Nineveh were like] [MET] lions that killed or strangled [other animals] [and brought the meat] to their dens.”
The lion caught enough for his whelps, and killed for his lionesses: and he filled his holes with prey, and his den with rapine.
13 The Commander of the armies of angels says [to the people of Nineveh], “I am opposed to you; I will cause your chariots to [be burned in fires and] go up in smoke. Your young men will be killed with swords. [Your soldiers] will never again conquer [other nations] and seize their valuable possessions. Your messengers will never again take messages [to other nations, demanding that their armies surrender to them].”
Behold I come against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn thy chariots even to smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey out of the land, and the voice of thy messengers shall be heard no more.
