Nahum 2

1 Look! On the mountains are the feet of one who brings good news and announces peace. Judah, celebrate your feasts and fulfill your vows, for they will never again pass through you to wear you out. It is finished; he has been removed.

2 One who breathes hard has come up before you, rescued from trouble. Watch the road, brace yourself, and summon all your strength.

3 For the Lord has turned aside Jacob’s pride, as he did Israel’s pride, because those who shook them have shaken them empty and destroyed their branches.

4 They destroyed the weapons of their power from among men. Their mighty men play with fire; the reins of their chariots flash on the day of his preparation, and the horsemen are thrown into confusion

5 in the streets. Chariots clash together and become entangled in the squares. They look like flaming torches, like lightning racing past.

6 Their nobles remember and flee by day. They grow weak as they go, but hurry to the walls and prepare their defenses.

7 The river gates are opened, and the palaces collapse.

8 The foundation is exposed. She goes up, and her slave women are carried off, moaning like doves in their hearts.

9 Nineveh’s waters are like a pool, but her people flee and do not stop; no one looks back.

10 They plunder the silver and plunder the gold. There is no end to her riches; they are weighed down with all her desirable treasures.

11 Thrusting, shaking, surging, hearts breaking, knees giving way, pain in every body— every face blackened like a scorched pot.

12 Where is the lions’ den, the pasture that belonged to the cubs, where the lion went to enter, and the lion’s cub, with no one to frighten him?

13 The lion seized enough for his cubs and strangled prey for his young. He filled his nest with prey and his den with plunder.

14 “Look, I am against you,” says the Lord Almighty. “I will burn your multitude in smoke, and the sword will devour your lions. I will completely destroy your prey from the land, and the sound of your deeds will never be heard again.”