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!

Come up hath a scatterer to thy face, Keep the bulwark, watch the way, Strengthen the loins, strengthen power mightily.

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.

For turned back hath Jehovah to the excellency of Jacob, As [to] the excellency of Israel, For emptied them out have emptiers, And their branches they have marred.

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.

The shield of his mighty ones is become red, Men of might [are in] scarlet, With fiery torches [is] the chariot in a day of his preparation, And the firs have been caused to tremble.

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 out-places shine do the chariots, They go to and fro in broad places, Their appearances [are] like torches, As lightnings they run.

5 He summons his picked troops. They stumble on their way. They dash to its wall, and the protective shield is put in place.

He doth remember his honourable ones, They stumble in their goings, They hasten [to] its wall, and prepared is the covering.

6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved.

Gates of the rivers have been opened, And the palace is dissolved.

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.

And it is established — she hath removed, She hath been brought up, And her handmaids are leading as the voice of doves, Tabering on their hearts.

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.

And Nineveh [is] as a pool of waters, From of old it [is] — and they are fleeing! 'Stand ye, stand;' and none is turning!

9 Take the plunder of silver. Take the plunder of gold, for there is no end of treasure, an abundance of every precious thing.

Seize ye silver, seize ye gold, And there is no end to the prepared things, [To] the abundance of all desirable vessels.

10 She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.

She is empty, yea, emptiness and waste, And the heart hath melted, And the knees have smitten together, And great pain [is] in all loins, And the faces of all of them have gathered paleness.

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?

Where [is] the habitation of lionesses? And a feeding-place it [is] for young lions Where walked hath a lion, an old lion, A lion's whelp, and there is none troubling.

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.

The lion is tearing parts [for] his whelps, And is strangling for his lionesses, And he doth fill [with] prey his holes, And his habitations [with] rapine.

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.”

Lo, I [am] against thee, An affirmation of Jehovah of Hosts, And I have burned in smoke its chariot, And thy young lions consume doth a sword, And I have cut off from the land thy prey, And not heard any more is the voice of thy messengers!