Nahum 2

The Destruction of Nineveh

1  a The scatterer has come up against you.
b Man the ramparts;
watch the road;
dress for battle; ▼
▼ Hebrew gird your loins

collect all your strength.
 2  For d the  Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob
as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
and e ruined their branches.
 3  The shield of his mighty men is red;
f his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
on the day he musters them;
the cypress spears are brandished.
 4  g The chariots race madly through the streets;
they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
they dart like lightning.
 5 He remembers h his officers;
i they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
the siege tower ▼
▼ Or  the mantelet
 is set up.
 6  k The river gates are opened;
the palace l melts away;
 7 its mistress ▼
▼ The meaning of the Hebrew word rendered  its mistress is uncertain
 is n stripped; ▼
▼ Or exiled
 she is carried off,
her slave girls p lamenting,
moaning like doves
and beating their breasts.
 8  q Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters run away. ▼
▼ Compare Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

“Halt! Halt!” they cry,
but s none turns back.
 9 Plunder the silver,
plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
or of the wealth of all precious things.
 10  t Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
u Hearts melt and v knees tremble;
w anguish is in all loins;
x all faces grow pale!
 11 Where is the lions’ den,
the feeding place of y the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
where his cubs were, with z none to disturb?
 12  aa The lion tore enough for his cubs
and ab strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.

13  ac Behold, I am against you, declares the  Lord of hosts, and ad I will burn your ▼
▼ Hebrew her
 chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and af the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.

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