He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your power mightily!
Parallel translations
- 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.
- BSB One who scatters advances against you, O Nineveh. Guard the fortress! Watch the road! Brace yourselves! Summon all your strength!
- 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! Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up.
- 2 Chr 25:8But if you will go, take action, and be strong for the battle. God will overthrow you before the enemy; for God has power to help, and to overthrow.”
- Jer 51:20–23“You are my battle ax and weapons of war. With you I will break the nations into pieces. With you I will destroy kingdoms.
- Jer 51:11–12“Make the arrows sharp! Hold the shields firmly! Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, the vengeance of his temple.
- Jer 50:23How the hammer of the whole earth is cut apart and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!
- Jer 46:3–10“Prepare the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle!
- Isa 14:6who struck the peoples in wrath with a continual stroke, who ruled the nations in anger, with a persecution that no one restrained.
- Nah 3:14–15Draw water for the siege. Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make the brick kiln strong.
- Jer 25:9behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says Yahweh, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around. I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
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.