Nahum 2

The city attacked

1A scatterer has come up against you.
Guard the fortress! Watch the road!
Brace your waist! Gather all your strength! 2For the LORD is restoring Jacob’s splendor,
like Israel’s splendor,
though plunderers have plundered them
and ruined their vine branches. 3His warriors’ shields are red;
his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots flash with fiery metal on the day he prepares them,
and cypress spears are brandished. 4Chariots race wildly through the streets
and rush about the squares.
They look like torches;
they dart like lightning. 5He summons his nobles;
they stumble as they go.
They hurry to her wall,
and the protective screen is set in place. 6The river gates are opened;
the palace dissolves. 7It is decreed: she is exposed and led away.
Her slave women moan like doves,
beating their breasts.

The plunder

8Nineveh has been like a pool of water since her earliest days,
but now they are fleeing.
“Stop! Stop!”
No one turns back. 9Plunder silver! Plunder gold!
There is no end to the treasure,
a wealth of every precious object. 10Empty, emptied, devastated!
Hearts melt, knees buckle;
every waist writhes,
and every face loses its color.

The empty lions’ den

11Where is the lions’ den,
the feeding ground of the young lions,
where lion, lioness, and cub walked
with no one to frighten them? 12The lion tore enough prey for his cubs
and strangled prey for his lionesses.
He filled his lairs with prey,
his dens with torn flesh. 13“I am against you,” declares the LORD of Armies.
“I will burn her chariots into smoke;
the sword will consume your young lions.
I will cut off your prey from the earth,
and your messengers’ voices will be heard no more.”