Nahum 2

¹ The shatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; gird your loins; collect all your strength.

² (For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob as the majesty of Israel, for plunderers have stripped them and ruined their branches.)

³ The shield of his mighty men is red, his soldiers are clothed in scarlet. The chariots flash like flame when mustered in array; the chargers prance.

⁴ The chariots rage in the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches, they dart like lightning.

⁵ The officers are summoned, they stumble as they go, they hasten to the wall, the mantelet is set up.

⁶ The river gates are opened, the palace is in dismay;

⁷ its mistress is stripped, she is carried off, her maidens lamenting, moaning like doves, and beating their breasts.

⁸ Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. "Halt! Halt!" they cry; but none turns back.

⁹ Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of treasure, or wealth of every precious thing.

¹⁰ Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts faint and knees tremble, anguish is on all loins, all faces grow pale!

¹¹ Where is the lions' den, the cave of the young lions, where the lion brought his prey, where his cubs were, with none to disturb?

¹² The lion tore enough for his whelps and strangled prey for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

¹³ Behold, I am against you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no more be heard.