Nahum 2

The one who smashes his enemies to pieces has marched up against you, Nineveh. Guard the fort! Watch the road! Brace yourself! Gather all the strength you have!

1He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.

NoteNineveh was the capital of Assyria, the empire that had dominated the ancient Near East for generations and had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel. The city fell to a coalition of Babylonians and Medes in 612 BC; this whole book is addressed to it. The King James does not name the city here, the name is supplied from the book's opening line. "Make thy loins strong" is a literal rendering of a Hebrew idiom: men wore long robes, and to fight or run hard you pulled the hem up and belted it at the waist, so "strengthen the loins" means brace yourself for violent effort.

2The LORD is restoring the greatness of Jacob, the same greatness Israel once had, even though raiders have stripped them bare and ruined the branches of their vine.

2For the LORD hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.

Note"Jacob" and "Israel" are two names for the same people, Jacob was renamed Israel, and his descendants were called by either name. The Hebrew verb here can be read as past, present, or future, so translators differ over whether God has already restored this greatness, is restoring it, or will; the King James takes it one way ("hath turned away") and most modern versions the other. The image of a vine with its branches stripped is a standing figure for the nation ravaged by invaders.

3The shields of the attacker's strong soldiers are red, and his fighting men are dressed in scarlet. The metal on the chariots flashes like fire on the day he gets them ready, and the cypress-wood spears are waved in the air.

3The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken.

NoteRed and scarlet may mean shields of dyed leather and uniforms of red cloth, may mean metal catching the light, or may suggest blood, the Hebrew does not settle it. The last line is obscure: the same word means both "cypress/fir" and, by extension, spear shafts made of that wood, which is why the King James reads "the fir trees shall be terribly shaken" while modern versions read "the cypress spears are brandished."

4The chariots tear through the streets and rush back and forth in the open squares. They look like flaming torches, and they dart about like lightning.

4The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.

5He calls out his best officers. They stumble as they push forward. They hurry to the city wall, and the shield that covers the attackers is set in place.

5He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared.

NoteThe "defence" or covering shield was a mantelet, a large portable screen of wicker or hide, set up at the base of a city wall so that attackers digging, battering, or climbing beneath it were protected from arrows and stones thrown down from above.

6The gates that hold back the river are thrown open, and the palace falls apart.

6The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.

NoteNineveh stood on the Tigris, with the Khosr river running through the city and a system of canals, dams and sluice gates controlling the water. "River gates" are those water-controls, not the city's entrances; ancient accounts of the city's fall speak of flooding that undermined a stretch of the walls.

7It is decided: the city is stripped and carried off into exile. Her servant women moan like doves and beat their hands against their chests.

7And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.

NoteThe King James "Huzzab" is a Hebrew word nobody has securely explained. The translators took it as a proper name, apparently of a queen; most modern versions read it as a verb meaning "it is fixed" or "it is decreed." Both readings are guesses at the same consonants. Moaning like doves and beating the chest with the hands were the standard public gestures of grief and mourning.

8Nineveh has been like a pool of water for as long as anyone can remember, but now the water is running out. "Stop! Stop!" they shout, but no one turns back.

8But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back.

NoteThe comparison works two ways: Nineveh was famously supplied with water by canals and reservoirs, and a large population was described as a body of water, so a city emptying of its people is a pool draining away.

9Grab the silver! Grab the gold! There is no end to the treasure here, a huge pile of every kind of valuable thing.

9Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture.

NoteNineveh's wealth was largely tribute and plunder carried in from the nations Assyria had conquered. The King James "pleasant furniture" means desirable goods of every kind, not chairs and tables, "furniture" in 1611 meant equipment or valuables generally.

10She is emptied out, stripped, and left in ruins. Hearts melt with fear, knees knock together, every body shakes, and every face turns pale.

10She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.

NoteThe three Hebrew words behind "empty, and void, and waste" are built on similar sounds and rhyme with each other, a piling-up effect no English version can fully reproduce. "Faces gather blackness" is an idiom for the color draining from a face in terror.

11Where is the den of the lions now, the place where the young lions were fed? That is where the lion and the lioness walked with their cubs, and nothing frightened them.

11Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feedingplace of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?

NoteThe lion was Assyria's own emblem. Its kings kept lions, hunted them in staged royal hunts, and covered their palace walls at Nineveh with lion reliefs; royal inscriptions boast of the king falling on his enemies like a lion. The taunt turns their chosen image against them.

12The lion killed all the prey his cubs needed and strangled enough for his lionesses. He filled his caves with the animals he caught and his dens with torn meat.

12The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.

13"Look, I am against you," says the LORD of Hosts, the commander of heaven's armies. "I will burn up your chariots in smoke, and the sword will kill your young lions. I will take away the prey you hunt on the earth, and the voice of your messengers will never be heard again."

13Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

Note"LORD of hosts" translates a title meaning the LORD who commands armies, the armies of heaven, and in some passages Israel's armies as well. "Messengers" are the envoys Assyrian kings sent to surrounding nations to demand surrender and tribute; their voices carried the empire's threats, and their silence means the empire has stopped speaking.