The fearful and victorious armies of God against Nineveh, 1-13.
1 He who dashes in pieces/
has come up before your face./
Guard the fortress,/
watch the way, make your loins strong,/
and fortify your power mightily.
2 For the LORD restores the excellence of Jacob/
like the excellence of Israel./
For the emptiers have emptied them out/
and marred their vine branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is made red./
The valiant men are in scarlet./
The chariots shall be with flaming torches/
in the day of his preparation,/
and the fir-trees shall be terribly shaken.
4 The chariots shall rage in the streets./
They shall jostle one against another in the broad ways./
They shall seem like torches/
and they shall run like the lightnings.
5 He shall recount his nobles./
They shall stumble in their walk./
They shall make haste to the wall thereof,/
and the defense shall be prepared.
6 The gates of the rivers shall be opened,/
and the palace shall be dissolved.
7 It is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away./
Her women-servants shall moan/
as with the voice of doves,/
beating upon their breasts.
8 But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water./
Yet they shall flee away./
"Stand, stand," they shall cry,/
but no one shall look back.
9 Take the plunder of silver and take the plunder of gold./
There is no end to the supply./
There is glory from all the desirable vessels.
10 She is empty, void, and waste./
And the heart melts, the knees smite together,/
much pain is in all loins,/
and all of their faces gather blackness.
11 Where is the dwelling of the lions/
and the feeding-place of the young lions,/
where the lion, the lioness,/
and the lion's whelp walked/
and no one made them afraid?
12 The lion tore in pieces enough for his whelps/
and strangled for his lionesses./
And he filled his caves with prey/
and his dens with flesh.
13 "Behold, I am against you," says the LORD of hosts,/
"and I will burn her chariots in the smoke,/
and the sword shall devour your young lions./
And I will cut off your prey from the earth,/
and the voice of your messengers/
shall be heard no more."
Matthew Henry Commentary - Nahum, Chapter 2[➚]
John Gill's Chapter Summary:
This chapter gives an account of the destruction of the city of Nineveh; describes the instruments of it as very terrible and powerful, and not to be resisted (verses 1-4); the manner of taking it, the flight of its inhabitants, and the spoil of its riches and treasures (verses 5-10); and the king and the princes thereof, compared to a lion, and a lion's whelp, are insulted as being without a den or dwelling place, because of their cruelty and ravening, for which the Lord was against them, and threatened them with utter ruin, which he brought upon them (verses 11-13).
[v.1] - "He who dashes in pieces" - That is, the waster, or the destroyer.
[v.3] - "the fir-trees shall be terribly shaken" - By "fir-trees," what is likely alluded to here are spears or lances. On this, John Owen said, "The figure is bold, but it is no unusual thing in poetry to call an instrument by the name of the material of which it is made." From John Calvin's Commentary: "Their opinion is more correct who think that fir-trees are to be taken for lances, though they do not sufficiently express the meaning of the Prophet; for he means, I have no doubt, that such would be the concussion among the lances, that it would be like that of fir-trees, tossed here and there in the forest. For lances, we know, are made of fir-trees, because it is a light wood and flexible... The lances then trembled, or shook in the hands of the soldiers, as fir-trees shake. Thus we see that the Prophet here continues to describe the terrible appearance of the Chaldeans."
[v.9] - "the supply" - Literally, "the preparation," that is, things prepared, supply, store. This is likely referring to the wealth or treasure of the place.
[v.10] - "blackness" - The meaning of the Hebrew word here is uncertain. John Calvin was inclined to this rendering: "all faces shall withdraw their beauty, or their brightness." Yet, he also admitted that there is no real difference to the meaning of the passage whether it be rendered, "withdraw brightness," or, "gather blackness." John Owen pointed to the English rendering of the Septuagint, which is, "and the face (or, the faces) of all as the burning on the pot." The burning on the pot refers to when a pot or cauldron is blackened by smoke. Regardless of how the passage is rendered, the idea behind it is to signify an outward appearance of sorrow.
[v.11] - "Where is the dwelling of the lions" - The word lions in this passage is literally, "lionesses," for in the Hebrew, the feminine gender is used. Perhaps the femenine gender was used because the passage is using a lion as a metaphor for Nineveh, and the Hebrew language uses the feminine gender when referring to cities (see the note for Nahum 1:8).