He that dasheth in pieces is come up against thee: keep the fortress, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.
For Jehovah restoreth the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, and destroyed their vine-branches.
The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots {Hebrew: are with fire of steel.}flash with steel in the day of his preparation, and the {Hebrew: cypress-trees.}cypress spears are brandished.
The chariots rage in the streets; they rush to and fro in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like torches; they run like the lightnings.
He remembereth his nobles: they stumble in their march; they make haste to the wall thereof, and the mantelet is prepared.
The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved.
{Or, Huzzab is uncovered &c.}And it is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her handmaids {Or, lead her}moan as with the voice of doves, beating upon their {Hebrew: hearts.}breasts.
But Nineveh hath been {Or, from the days that she hath been}from of old like a pool of water: yet they flee away. Stand, stand, they cry; but none {Or causeth them to turn}looketh back.
Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store, the {Or, wealth}glory of all goodly furniture.
She is empty, and void, and waste; and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of them all are waxed pale.
Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?
The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with ravin.
Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.
Querverweise zu Nahum 2,10 Nah 2,10
And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?
And as soon as we had heard it, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more spirit in any man, because of you: for Jehovah your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.
Then the king's {Aramaic: brightness.}countenance was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
Therefore are my loins filled with anguish; pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman in travail: I am {Hebrew: bent.}pained so that I cannot hear; I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
At their presence the peoples are in anguish; all faces are waxed pale.
And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God {Or, was brooding upon}moved upon the face of the waters.
I am poured out like water,And all my bones are out of joint:My heart is like wax;It is melted within me.
Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child: wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.
But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and ostriches shall dwell there, and wild goats shall dance there.
And {Hebrew: howling creatures.}wolves shall {Or, answer}cry in their castles, and jackals in the pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
Therefore shall all hands be feeble, and every heart of man shall melt:
I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith Jehovah of hosts.
and they shall be dismayed; {Or, they shall take hold of pangs and sorrows}pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman in travail: they shall look in amazement one at another; their faces shall be faces of flame.
Behold, Jehovah maketh the {Or, land (and so in verse 3, 4, &c.)}earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever; from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it; and the {Or, bittern}owl and the raven shall dwell therein: and he will stretch over it the line of confusion, and the {Hebrew: stones.}plummet of emptiness.
{Or, As for her nobles, none shall be there to proclaim the kingdom}They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing.
And thorns shall come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.
And the wild beasts of the desert shall meet with the {Hebrew: howling creatures.}wolves, and the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; yea, {Hebrew: Lilith.}the night-monster shall settle there, and shall find her a place of rest.
There shall the dart-snake make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shade; yea, there shall the kites be gathered, every one with her mate.
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills {Or, moved lightly}moved to and fro.
I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
I beheld, and, lo, {Or, Carmel}the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of Jehovah, and before his fierce anger.
and say, O Jehovah, thou hast spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever.
And he will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like the wilderness.
And herds shall lie down in the midst of her, {Or, all beasts of every kind}all the beasts of the nations: both the pelican and the porcupine shall lodge in the capitals thereof; their voice shall sing in the windows; {Or, drought}desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he hath laid bare the cedar-work.
This is the joyous city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none besides me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.
I have cut off nations; their {Or, corner towers}battlements are desolate; I have made their streets waste, so that none passeth by; their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, so that there is no inhabitant.
And {Greek: one.}a strong angel took up a stone as it were a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with a mighty fall shall Babylon, the great city, be cast down, and shall be found no more at all.
And the voice of harpers and minstrels and flute-players and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, {Some ancient authorities omit of whatsoever craft.}of whatsoever craft, shall be found any more at all in thee; and the voice of a mill shall be heard no more at all in thee;
and the light of a lamp shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the princes of the earth; for with thy sorcery were all the nations deceived.