Nahum - The Old Testament

¹ To Judah See on the mountains the feet of the herald! 'Peace!' he proclaims. Judah, celebrate your feasts, carry out your vows, for Belial will never pass through you again; he has been utterly destroyed.

² The destroyer has advanced on you, guarding the siege-works, watching the road, bracing himself, mustering great strength!

³ (For Yahweh has restored the vine of Jacob, yes, the vine of Israel, although the plunderers had plundered them, although they had snapped off their vine-shoots!)

⁴ The shields of his fighting men show red, his warriors are dressed in scarlet; the metal of the chariots sparkles as he prepares for battle; the horsemen are impatient for action;

⁵ the chariots storm through the streets, jostling one another in the squares; they look like blazing flames, like lightning they dash to and fro.

⁶ His captains are called out; stumbling as they go, they speed towards the wall, and the mantelet is put in position.

⁷ The sluices of the River are opened, and the palace melts in terror.

⁸ Beauty is taken captive, carried away, her slave-girls moaning like doves

⁹ and beating their breasts. Nineveh is like a lake, whose waters are draining away. 'Stop! Stop!' But no one turns back.

¹⁰ 'Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!' There is no end to the treasure, a mass of everything you could desire!

¹¹ Ravaged, wrecked, ruined! Heart fails and knees give way, anguish is in the loins of all, and every face grows pale!

¹² Where is the lions' den now, the cave of the lion's whelps, where the lion and lioness walked with their cubs and no one molested them,

¹³ where the lion would tear up food for his whelps and strangle the kill for his mates, where he filled his caverns with prey and his lairs with spoil?

¹⁴ Look, I am against you!- declares Yahweh Sabaoth- I shall send your chariots up in smoke, and the sword will devour your whelps; I shall cut short your depredations on earth, and the voices of your envoys will be heard no more.