Nahum 2

¹ See, over the mountains the messenger hurries! ‘Peace!’ he proclaims. Judah, celebrate your feasts, carry out your vows, for Belial will never pass through you again; he is utterly annihilated.

³ Yes, Yahweh is restoring the vineyard of Jacob and the vineyard of Israel. For the plunderers had plundered them, they had broken off their branches.

² A destroyer advances against you. Mount guard on the rampart, watch the road, tuck up your cloaks; muster all your forces.

⁴ The shields of his fighting men show red, his warriors are dressed in scarlet; all the steel of the chariots flashes as they are thrown into battle; the horsemen are impatient for action;

⁵ the chariots storm through the streets, they hurtle across the squares; they look like blazing flames, like lightning they dash to and fro.

⁶ The picked troops are called out; the columns clash, they hurl themselves against the rampart, the mantelet is already in place.

⁷ The gates that give on the river are opened, in the palace all is panic.

⁸ The Lady[*a] is carried off, taken into exile, her handmaids raise the dirge, with sighs like the moaning of doves, and beat their breasts.

⁹ Nineveh is like a pool whose waters are draining away. ‘Stop! Stop!’ But no one turns back.

¹⁰ ‘Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!’ There are endless treasures, tons of valuables.

¹¹ Raid and ravage and ruin! Heart fails and knees give way, fear is in the loins of all and every face grows pale.

¹² Where is the lions’ den, the cave of the lion’s whelps? When the lion made his foray the lioness stayed behind, the lion’s cubs too; and no one molested them.

¹³ The lion clawed enough for his whelps, and tore up prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with his spoil, and his dens with the prey.

¹⁴ I am here! Look to yourself! – It is Yahweh Sabaoth who speaks. I mean to send your chariots up in smoke; the sword shall devour your lion’s whelps. I will wipe the earth clean of your plunder, the voice of your envoys shall be heard no more.