One who scatters advances against you, O Nineveh. Guard the fortress! Watch the road! Brace yourselves! Summon all your strength!
Parallel translations
- WEB He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your power mightily!
- KJV He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.
- NKJV He who scatters has come up before your face. Man the fort! Watch the road! Strengthen your flanks! Fortify your power mightily.
- NASB The one who scatters has come up against you. Keep watch over the fortress, watch the road; Bind up your waist, summon all your strength.
- NLT Your enemy is coming to crush you, Nineveh. Man the ramparts! Watch the roads! Prepare your defenses! Call out your forces!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
An attacker, 'he who dashes in pieces,' advances against Nineveh, and the city is mockingly told to man its defenses. Judgment is now arriving in force.
Overview
The call to keep the fortress and strengthen for battle is ironic, since no preparation can avert God's decreed destruction. The 'scatterer' is the besieging army the Lord raises up, likely the Babylonians and Medes who historically destroyed Nineveh in 612 BC. The verse shows that God uses real historical agents to execute his righteous judgment on the nations.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Joel 3:9–11Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war; rouse the mighty men; let all the men of war advance and attack!
- 2 Chr 25:8Even if you go and fight bravely in battle, God will make you stumble before the enemy, for God has power to help and power to overthrow.”
- Jer 51:20–23“You are My war club, My weapon for battle. With you I shatter nations; with you I bring kingdoms to ruin.
- Jer 51:11–12Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the vengeance of the LORD—vengeance for His temple.
- Jer 50:23How the hammer of the whole earth lies broken and shattered! What a horror Babylon has become among the nations!
- Jer 46:3–10“Deploy your shields, small and large; advance for battle!
- Isa 14:6It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows; it subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution.
- Nah 3:14–15Draw your water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses. Work the clay and tread the mortar; repair the brick kiln!
- Jer 25:9behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The certain judgment on Nineveh and the comfort that 'the LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble' point to Christ, who is both the refuge of his people and the judge of their enemies.
How Nahum 2:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.