Nahum 2

1The shatterer has come up against you. Guard the stronghold! Look to the path! Strengthen your loins! Fortify your strength mightily!

2For Yahweh restores the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and ruined their vine branches.

3The shields of his champions are reddened, warriors clad in scarlet, chariots with fiery torches in the day of his preparation, and the cypress spears brandished.

4The chariots dash madly through the streets, clashing together in the plazas; their appearance resembles torches, like lightning flashes they speed.

5He musters his nobles; they stumble in their march and hasten to her wall, and the covering is prepared.

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

7It is decreed: she is uncovered, she is brought up, and her maids lead her away like the sound of doves, beating timbrels upon their breasts.

8Nineveh is like a pool of water from days of old, yet they are fleeing—“Stand! Stand!”—but no one turns back.

9Plunder silver, plunder gold, for there is no end to the store of glory from all desirable vessels.

10She is emptied, void, and wasted, the heart faints, knees smite together, trembling grips all loins, and the faces of everyone gather blackness.

11Where is the lions' den and its feeding place for the cubs, where the lion walked, the lioness—there the lion's whelp—and none frightened them?

12The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn prey.

13Behold, I am against you, declares Yahweh of hosts; I will burn her chariots in smoke, a sword will devour your young lions, I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will not be heard again.