Nahum 2:1-10 ▼

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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