Nachum 2

¹Hinei, upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth Besorah (Good News) ,

that publisheth Shalom!

O Yehudah, keep thy chagim,

fulfill thy nedarim;

for the Beliya'al shall no more pass through thee;

he is utterly cut off.

²A shatterer is come up before thy face [O Nineveh];[#2:2 Ninevehʼs overpowering enemy]

guard thy fortress, watch the derech,

fortify thy loins, marshal all thy koach (power) .

³For Hashem is about to restore the eminence of Ya'akov,

like the eminence of Yisroel;

for plunderers have plundered them,

and made their vine branches as shachat.

⁴The mogen (shield) of his gibborim is made red,

the anshei chayil (valiant men) are in scarlet;

the chariot shall flash like fire

in the day of its array,

and the spears shall be brandished.

⁵The chariot shall rage in the streets,

they shall jostle one against another in the rechovot,

they shall seem like flaming torches,

they shall dart about like the lightnings.

⁶He shall remember his mighty ones;[#2:6a the Assyrian king]

they stumble in their walk;

they shall make haste to the chomah (wall) of it,

and the defense shall be prepared.

⁷The sha'arei haneharot (the gates of the rivers) shall be thrown open,

and the heikhal (palace) reels.

⁸Her golus (exile) is decreed, she shall be carried away,[#2:8 Ninevehʼs]

her slave girls moaning like the kol yonim (voice of doves) ,

beating their breasts.

⁹But Nineveh is like a pool of mayim;

and her mayim is draining away.

Stop, stop, shall they cry;

but no one turns back.

¹⁰Take ye the plunder of kesef, take the plunder of zahav;

for there is no end of the treasures,

heaps of kol keli chemdah (every delightful vessel) .

¹¹She is empty, and void, and stripped;

and the lev melteth,

and the knees give way,

bodies tremble,

and the faces of them all grow pale.

¹²Where is the ma'on arayot (den of lions) ,

and the feeding place of the young lions,

where the aryeh, even the lioness,

walked with their cubs, and none made them afraid?

¹³The aryeh did tear in pieces enough for his cubs,

and strangled for his lionesses,

and filled his lairs with prey,

and his dens with torn flesh.

¹⁴Hineni, I am against thee [O Nineveh], saith Hashem Tzva'os, and I will burn your chariots in the smoke, and the cherev shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey from ha'aretz, and the voice of thy malachim (messengers) shall no more be heard.