seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Nahum 2:1 [a]An attacker advances against you, Nineveh.
Guard the fortress,
watch the road,
brace yourselves,
marshal all your strength!
Guard the fortress,
watch the road,
brace yourselves,
marshal all your strength!
2 The Lord will restore the splendor of Jacob
like the splendor of Israel,
though destroyers have laid them waste
and have ruined their vines.
like the splendor of Israel,
though destroyers have laid them waste
and have ruined their vines.
3 The shields of the soldiers are red;
the warriors are clad in scarlet.
The metal on the chariots flashes
on the day they are made ready;
the spears of juniper are brandished.[b]
4 The chariots storm through the streets,
rushing back and forth through the squares.
They look like flaming torches;
they dart about like lightning.
the warriors are clad in scarlet.
The metal on the chariots flashes
on the day they are made ready;
the spears of juniper are brandished.[b]
4 The chariots storm through the streets,
rushing back and forth through the squares.
They look like flaming torches;
they dart about like lightning.
5 Nineveh summons her picked troops,
yet they stumble on their way.
They dash to the city wall;
the protective shield is put in place.
6 The river gates are thrown open
and the palace collapses.
7 It is decreed[c] that Nineveh
be exiled and carried away.
Her female slaves moan like doves
and beat on their breasts.
8 Nineveh is like a pool
whose water is draining away.
“Stop! Stop!” they cry,
but no one turns back.
9 Plunder the silver!
Plunder the gold!
The supply is endless,
the wealth from all its treasures!
10 She is pillaged, plundered, stripped!
Hearts melt, knees give way,
bodies tremble, every face grows pale.
yet they stumble on their way.
They dash to the city wall;
the protective shield is put in place.
6 The river gates are thrown open
and the palace collapses.
7 It is decreed[c] that Nineveh
be exiled and carried away.
Her female slaves moan like doves
and beat on their breasts.
8 Nineveh is like a pool
whose water is draining away.
“Stop! Stop!” they cry,
but no one turns back.
9 Plunder the silver!
Plunder the gold!
The supply is endless,
the wealth from all its treasures!
10 She is pillaged, plundered, stripped!
Hearts melt, knees give way,
bodies tremble, every face grows pale.
11 Where now is the lions’ den,
the place where they fed their young,
where the lion and lioness went,
and the cubs, with nothing to fear?
12 The lion killed enough for his cubs
and strangled the prey for his mate,
filling his lairs with the kill
and his dens with the prey.
the place where they fed their young,
where the lion and lioness went,
and the cubs, with nothing to fear?
12 The lion killed enough for his cubs
and strangled the prey for his mate,
filling his lairs with the kill
and his dens with the prey.
13 “I am against you,”
declares the Lord Almighty.
“I will burn up your chariots in smoke,
and the sword will devour your young lions.
I will leave you no prey on the earth.
The voices of your messengers
will no longer be heard.”
declares the Lord Almighty.
“I will burn up your chariots in smoke,
and the sword will devour your young lions.
I will leave you no prey on the earth.
The voices of your messengers
will no longer be heard.”
a. Nahum 2:1 In Hebrew texts 2:1-13 is numbered 2:2-14.
b. Nahum 2:3 Hebrew; Septuagint and Syriac ready; / the horsemen rush to and fro.
c. Nahum 2:7 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
This is definitely a switch. The Assyrian army is the one doing the moaning and running. The Babylonians are in control now. Both are rude, mean, murderers but welcome to phase two. First the Assyrians went in and tore up Israel..... murdering, raping, pillaging, and enslaving...... and now the Babylonians are doing the same to the Assyrians.
This is from bible-studys.org.
Nineveh’s fall (in 612 B.C.), at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, though still future in Nahum’s day, is described vividly in present tense terms.
The Medo-Babylonian army is composed of “mighty men”. Its favorite color was “red” or “scarlet” (Ezek. 23:14). The “shields” of the invaders were bright red and must have struck terror into the hearts of the defenders as the army approached the city.
The reference to the “gates of the rivers” may refer to the statement in the Babylonian Chronicle that the flooding river made breaches in the city wall.
“Huzzab” is unclear. It may refer to a goddess whose devotees beat their breasts because she has been taken captive. The taking of a city’s gods as spoil in battle is well attested in ancient Near Eastern literature.
The rapacity and ferocity of the Assyrians is well documented in the annals of her cruel kings. “The lion” was the national symbol of Assyria. Here Nineveh is pictured as “the dwelling of the lions”.
“Where is”: Archeologists have found a carving from a palace showing an Assyrian king on a lion hunt. Nahum rhetorically asks where Nineveh has gone. No longer describing Nineveh’s fall, the prophet taunted her, ridiculing her fall from power and glory.
Like a pride of lions, with plenty to eat and in fear of no enemy, Nineveh ruthlessly “tore” her prey. She herself will become prey for another nation, under the sovereign direction of God. “I am against you” should be the most feared words a nation could receive from God.
This is from the easy English site.These verses describe the enemy. The enemy is the armies of Babylon. We say armies, because there were three of them: Scythians, Medes and Persians. Together we call them Babylon. They had red shields and uniforms. Scarlet is a colour very like red. Soldiers protected themselves with shields. Spears were long sticks with points on the end. They could kill an enemy. The soldiers rode in chariots. Chariots were carts that horses pulled.
The King of Nineveh sends for his best soldiers. They run to his palace. But many of them fall (or trip) on the way. The Hebrew Bible says ‘they rush to her wall’. We think that ‘her’ means the palace. The King of Nineveh lived in the palace. But maybe it was the temple where their goddess was. A goddess is a female god. There were many gods and goddesses in the temple at Nineveh also. One goddess was Ishtar, or Huzzab. The people in Assyria thought that she was goddess of the whole world. And they thought that she was the goddess of love.
They had built the city called Nineveh on a river. It was a river that flowed into the River Tigris. At this time, rains made the rivers flood. The flood knocked down part of Nineveh’s wall. Nahum prophesied that this would happen. He said, ‘the gates of the rivers are open wide.’ It means that the floods in the rivers made gates (holes) in the city’s walls. Soldiers from Babylon came in through these gates. The floods also knocked down buildings like the palace of the King of Nineveh.
So the soldiers from Babylon carry away Ishtar, or Huzzab. Her female slaves cry and they are very sad. They make noises like birds called doves.
The people in Nineveh flow away like water. The soldiers from Babylon shout ‘Stop!’ but nobody does stop! The people in Nineveh all run away.
Steal their silver and gold (their treasure) says the prophet. So they robbed it. ‘It’ means the capital of Assyria, called Nineveh. This made Assyria’s people very frightened. Remember that Nahum spoke the Hebrew language. In the Hebrew Bible, there are just three words at the start of verse 10. The verse should start, ‘Robbed, stolen, taken’. This gives us an idea of the Hebrew poetry in the book of Nahum. Our English words have not so much poetry in them.
These verses are a ‘taunt song’. This means that the prophet is laughing at Assyria with these words. Assyria is the lion in the song. The place where he slept has gone. The place where young lions fed has gone. Once that place was Nineveh and Assyria. Now it is nowhere! A lioness is a female lion. The lions and lionesses and the baby lions have gone because Nineveh and Assyria have gone. Babylon has destroyed them! Verse 12 tells us what Assyria was like. Assyria’s soldiers tore and killed. They were very cruel to the people that they defeated. They took people away from their own countries … or ‘fills these caves with the bodies that he has torn’. Verse 12 says ‘he’ because it tells us about a male lion.
And this is from Bibletrack.org.This chapter prophesies the complete destruction of Nineveh, the seat of the Assyrians. As we stated, they fell to the Babylonians in 609 B.C., and this was written at some point prior to that event. It is believed that Huzzab was a queen of Assyria. Her capture is prophesied in verse 7. Complete destruction is prophesied in verse 10, "She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness." The capital city is pictured as the lion's den in verses 11 and 12.
I had to do three commentaries this morning because of Huzzab. I don't know.... was she a goddess or a queen? One of the commentaries says she was the goddess of love [probably one of the names they used to have sex in the fake temples]..... another says she was either a goddess or a queen.... and the last calls her a queen. At any rate.... she, whoever she was, was quite prized by the people and when she was taken captive.... the people cried.... like doves.When they cried like doves.... It was a dove that Noah used to see if there was any dry earth available. Did the people actually run when the queen was taken? What would the good people of the United States of America do if Melania Trump was taken? Would they cry for her or would they run because someone had stormed the White House and taken the First Lady? I can only imagine the carnage that must happen before the queen or the first lady is captured..
There's another cute notion in this horrifying tale..... in Verse 8 it says "Nineveh is like a pool". One of the commentaries said this verse is about the army of the Assyrians. It says like the water in a pool dries up.... and becomes useless.... so the army became useless. When I read that... I thought about a puddle.... and God's leg in a rain boot.... smashing down in the middle of the puddle.... sending Assyrian soldiers flying in all directions. In other words.... they were useless and they fled.
Even the mightiest.... the Assyrians.... fall to the next big thing coming down the historical corridor. Not one of them can deal with God.
