Scripture of the Day

Nahum 2–3:10 (Listen)

The Destruction of Nineveh

2:1   The scatterer has come up against you.
    Man the ramparts;
    watch the road;
  dress for battle;¹
    collect all your strength.
2   For the LORD is restoring the majesty of Jacob
    as the majesty of Israel,
  for plunderers have plundered them
    and ruined their branches.
3   The shield of his mighty men is red;
    his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
  The chariots come with flashing metal
    on the day he musters them;
    the cypress spears are brandished.
4   The chariots race madly through the streets;
    they rush to and fro through the squares;
  they gleam like torches;
    they dart like lightning.
5   He remembers his officers;
    they stumble as they go,
  they hasten to the wall;
    the siege tower² is set up.
6   The river gates are opened;
    the palace melts away;
7   its mistress³ is stripped;⁴ she is carried off,
    her slave girls lamenting,
  moaning like doves
    and beating their breasts.
8   Nineveh is like a pool
    whose waters run away.⁵
  “Halt! Halt!” they cry,
    but none turns back.
9   Plunder the silver,
    plunder the gold!
  There is no end of the treasure
    or of the wealth of all precious things.
10   Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
    Hearts melt and knees tremble;
  anguish is in all loins;
    all faces grow pale!
11   Where is the lions’ den,
    the feeding place of the young lions,
  where the lion and lioness went,
    where his cubs were, with none to disturb?
12   The lion tore enough for his cubs
    and strangled prey for his lionesses;
  he filled his caves with prey
    and his dens with torn flesh.

13 Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and I will burn your⁶ chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.

Woe to Nineveh

3:1   Woe to the bloody city,
    all full of lies and plunder—
    no end to the prey!
2   The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel,
    galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3   Horsemen charging,
    flashing sword and glittering spear,
  hosts of slain,
    heaps of corpses,
  dead bodies without end—
    they stumble over the bodies!
4   And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute,
    graceful and of deadly charms,
  who betrays nations with her whorings,
    and peoples with her charms.
5   Behold, I am against you,
    declares the LORD of hosts,
    and will lift up your skirts over your face;
  and I will make nations look at your nakedness
    and kingdoms at your shame.
6   I will throw filth at you
    and treat you with contempt
    and make you a spectacle.
7   And all who look at you will shrink from you and say,
  “Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?”
    Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8   Are you better than Thebes⁷
    that sat by the Nile,
  with water around her,
    her rampart a sea,
    and water her wall?
9   Cush was her strength;
    Egypt too, and that without limit;
    Put and the Libyans were her⁸ helpers.
10   Yet she became an exile;
    she went into captivity;
  her infants were dashed in pieces
    at the head of every street;
  for her honored men lots were cast,
    and all her great men were bound in chains.

(ESV)