Nahum 2

¹A scatterer has come up against you. Guard the rampart! Watch the road! Strengthen the loins! Summon up strength exceedingly!

²For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, although plunderers have laid them waste and ruined their vine-branches.

³The shields of his warriors are reddened; the men of valor are clad in scarlet; the chariotry flashes with steel on the day of its preparation; the spear-shafts quiver.

⁴In the streets the chariots rush madly; they race back and forth through the plazas; their appearance is like torches, like lightning flashes they dash to and fro.

⁵He summons his warriors; they stumble in their advance. They hasten to her wall, and the mantelet is prepared.

⁶The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace melts away.

⁷It is decreed; she is exiled, she is led away; her maidservants moan like the sound of doves, beating upon their breasts.

⁸And Nineveh is like a pool of water throughout her days; but they are fleeing. 'Stand! Stand!' But there is none to turn back.

⁹Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! There is no end to the supply — a wealth of every desirable article.

¹⁰Pillage, plunder, and desolation! The heart has melted and the knees knock; anguish is in all the loins, and all their faces have gathered pallor.

¹¹Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the pasture for the young lions, where the lion prowled, the lioness, there the cub of a lion— and none to make afraid?

¹²The lion, tearing enough for his cubs, and strangling for his lionesses; and he filled his holes with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

¹³Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariot with smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions, and I will cut off your prey from the land, and no longer shall the voice of your messengers be heard.