Nahum Chapter 2
A vivid battle scene as Nineveh's chariots rage and her glory is plundered.
Following the announcement of judgment in Nahum 1, this chapter paints Nineveh's fall in vivid battle imagery: red shields, flaming chariots that seem like torches, and a city likened to a draining pool of water.
\\1:15\\Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.
\\2:1\\He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.
\\2:2\\For the LORD hath turned away the excellence of Jacob, as the excellence of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.
\\2:3\\The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir-trees shall be terribly shaken.
\\2:4\\The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.
\\2:5\\He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defense shall be prepared.
\\2:6\\The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.
\\2:7\\And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.
\\2:8\\But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back.
\\2:9\\Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is no end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture.
\\2:10\\She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.
\\2:11\\Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?
\\2:12\\The lion tore in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.
\\2:13\\Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.