CHAPTER 2 Dec. 10 
How Nineveh Is to Fall 
He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your muscles! Fortify your power mightily! 2For Yahweh restores the pride of Jacob, as the pride of Israel; for the destroyers have destroyed them, and ruined their vine branches. 3The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are dressed in scarlet, the chariots flash with steel in the day of his preparation, and the pine spears are brandished. 4The chariots rage in the streets, they rush back and forth in the broad highways. Their appearance is like torches, they run like lightning. 5He summons his picked troops. They stumble on their way. They dash to protect its wall, and the protective shield is put in place. 6The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved. 7It is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her handmaids moan as with the voice of doves, beating on their breasts. 8Like water from a burst dam the people rush away from Nineveh. Stop! Stop! they cry, but no one looks back. 9Take the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold, for there is no end of the booty, the glory of all goodly jewels. 10She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale. 11Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion’s cubs, and no one made them afraid? 12The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with the kill, and his dens with prey. 13Behold, I am against you, says Yahweh of Armies, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your envoys will no longer be heard.

Commentary

2:1 Nineveh would have seemed invincible at the time Nahum prophesied. Nahum’s words would have seemed as the rantings of a madman. The prophecies about Christ’s return and the destruction of the present world order likewise demand faith to believe, but they will just as surely come true.
2:2 Vine branches- Israel were God’s vineyard, the individual Israelites were the branches (Is. 5:1). Jesus uses the same figure about us- He is the vine and we who are baptized into Him are the branches (Jn. 15:5). Thus the individuals in Christ are now the true Israel of God, a nation currently without a homeland, but waiting for the establishment of our Kingdom on this earth (Gal. 3:27-29).