< Nahum 2 >

1 He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your power mightily!
Ascendit qui dispergat coram te, qui custodiat obsidionem: contemplare viam, conforta lumbos, robora virtutem valde.
2 For the LORD restores the excellency of Jacob as the excellency of Israel, for the destroyers have destroyed them and ruined their vine branches.
Quia reddidit Dominus superbiam Jacob, sicut superbiam Israël; quia vastatores dissipaverunt eos, et propagines eorum corruperunt.
3 The shield of his mighty men is made red. The valiant men are in scarlet. The chariots flash with steel in the day of his preparation, and the pine spears are brandished.
Clypeus fortium ejus ignitus, viri exercitus in coccineis; igneæ habenæ currus in die præparationis ejus, et agitatores consopiti sunt.
4 The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and forth in the wide ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the lightnings.
In itineribus conturbati sunt; quadrigæ collisæ sunt in plateis: aspectus eorum quasi lampades, quasi fulgura discurrentia.
5 He summons his picked troops. They stumble on their way. They dash to its wall, and the protective shield is put in place.
Recordabitur fortium suorum; ruent in itineribus suis: velociter ascendent muros ejus, et præparabitur umbraculum.
6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved.
Portæ fluviorum apertæ sunt, et templum ad solum dirutum.
7 It is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her servants moan as with the voice of doves, beating on their breasts.
Et miles captivus abductus est, et ancillæ ejus minabantur gementes ut columbæ, murmurantes in cordibus suis.
8 But Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water, yet they flee away. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one looks back.
Et Ninive quasi piscina aquarum aquæ ejus; ipsi vero fugerunt. State, state! et non est qui revertatur.
9 Take the plunder of silver. Take the plunder of gold, for there is no end of treasure, an abundance of every precious thing.
Diripite argentum, diripite aurum: et non est finis divitiarum ex omnibus vasis desiderabilibus.
10 She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.
Dissipata est, et scissa, et dilacerata; et cor tabescens, et dissolutio geniculorum, et defectio in cunctis renibus, et facies omnium eorum sicut nigredo ollæ.
11 Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked with the lion’s cubs, and no one made them afraid?
Ubi est habitaculum leonum, et pascua catulorum leonum, ad quam ivit leo ut ingrederetur illuc catulus leonis, et non est qui exterreat?
12 The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs, and strangled prey for his lionesses, and filled his caves with the kill and his dens with prey.
Leo cepit sufficienter catulis suis, et necavit leænis suis, et implevit præda speluncas suas, et cubile suum rapina.
13 “Behold, I am against you,” says the LORD of Armies, “and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard.”
Ecce ego ad te, dicit Dominus exercituum, et succendam usque ad fumum quadrigas tuas, et leunculos tuos comedet gladius, et exterminabo de terra prædam tuam, et non audietur ultra vox nuntiorum tuorum.

< Nahum 2 >