Nahum 2 · The Lantern

The Overthrow of Nineveh

A scatterer has come up before your face. Guard the fortress, watch the road, strengthen the loins, make power very firm.

He imparted the fellowship of this Holy Spirit to the apostles, for it is written, "When he had said that, he breathed upon them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.' " This was the second breathing (the first had been impaired by willful sins)2 to fulfill the Scrip…

It is finished, it is taken away; he has come up breathing into your face, delivering from affliction. As it was already fixed, and in every way and altogether about to happen that Nineveh must be destroyed, he says that it is finished, indicating by this its coming to an end, as it were.

"One has come up blowing in your face, rescuing you from tribulation." God is the cause of this for you by his decision as though by some kind of blowing, destroying them but freeing you from their power. Just as by blowing a breath of life into Adam he made him a living being, so he provided you with salvation by the blowing of life.

For the LORD is restoring the pride of Jacob like the pride of Israel, for emptiers have emptied them out and ruined their vine branches.

The shield of his mighty men is reddened, the men of valor are in scarlet; with the fire of steel are the chariots in the day of his preparing, and the cypress spears are made to quiver.

In the streets the chariots rage; they rush back and forth in the squares. Their appearance is like torches; like lightning they run.

He remembers his nobles; they stumble in their going. They hurry to her wall, and the shelter is set up.

The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace melts away.

And it is fixed: she is stripped, she is carried up; and her maidservants are moaning like the sound of doves, beating on their hearts.

And Nineveh is like a pool of water from the days she has been; and they are fleeing. “Stand! Stand!” — but no one turns back.

Plunder silver! Plunder gold! And there is no end to the store, an abundance from every desirable vessel.

Emptiness and void and waste! And the heart melts and the knees knock, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of all of them gather a glow.

Where is the den of lions, and the feeding place it was for the young lions, where the lion walked, the lioness, the cub of the lion, with no one making them afraid?

The lion tore enough for his cubs and strangled for his lionesses; and he filled his holes with prey and his dens with what was torn.

See, I am against you — the utterance of the LORD of hosts — and I will burn her chariots in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. And I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard.

Nahum2

The Overthrow of Nineveh