NRSV Nahum 2 Chapter
1 2 3
2:1
A shatterer has come up against you. Guard the ramparts; watch the road; gird your loins; collect all your strength.
2:2
(For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, though ravagers have ravaged them and ruined their branches.)
2:3
The shields of his warriors are red; his soldiers are clothed in crimson. The metal on the chariots flashes on the day when he musters them; the chargers prance.
2:4
The chariots race madly through the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; their appearance is like torches, they dart like lightning.
2:5
He calls his officers; they stumble as they come forward; they hasten to the wall, and the mantelet is set up.
2:6
The river gates are opened, the palace trembles.
2:7
It is decreed that the city be exiled, its slave women led away, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.
2:8
Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. "Halt! Halt!"-- but no one turns back.
2:9
"Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of treasure! An abundance of every precious thing!"
2:10
Devastation, desolation, and destruction! Hearts faint and knees tremble, all loins quake, all faces grow pale!
2:11
What became of the lions' den, the cave of the young lions, where the lion goes, and the lion's cubs, with no one to disturb them?
2:12
The lion has torn enough for his whelps and strangled prey for his lionesses; he has filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.
2:13
See, I am against you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall be heard no more.