NETfree - Nahum - 2

2:1  The watchmen of Nineveh shout: "An enemy who will scatter you is marching out to attack you!" "Guard the rampart! Watch the road! Prepare yourselves for battle! Muster your mighty strength!"

2:2  For the LORD will restore the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, though their enemies have plundered them and have destroyed their fields.

2:3  The shields of his warriors are dyed red; the mighty soldiers are dressed in scarlet garments. The metal fittings of the chariots shine like fire on the day of battle; the soldiers brandish their spears.

2:4  The chariots race madly through the streets, they rush back and forth in the broad plazas; they look like lightning bolts, they dash here and there like flashes of lightning.

2:5  The commander orders his officers; they stumble as they advance; they rush to the city wall and they set up the covered siege tower.

2:6  The sluice gates are opened; the royal palace is deluged and dissolves.

2:7  Nineveh is taken into exile and is led away; her slave girls moan like doves while they beat their breasts.

2:8  Nineveh was like a pool of water throughout her days, but now her people are running away; she cries out: "Stop! Stop!" - but no one turns back.

2:9  Her conquerors cry out: "Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!" There is no end to the treasure; riches of every kind of precious thing.

2:10  Destruction, devastation, and desolation! Their hearts faint, their knees tremble, each stomach churns, each face turns pale!

2:11  Where now is the den of the lions, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, lioness, and lion cub once prowled and no one disturbed them?

2:12  The lion tore apart as much prey as his cubs needed and strangled prey to provide food for his lionesses; he filled his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh.

2:13  "I am against you!" declares the LORD who commands armies: "I will burn your chariots with fire; the sword will devour your young lions; you will no longer prey upon the land; the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard."