The chariots dash through the streets; they rush around the plazas, appearing like torches, darting about like lightning.
Parallel translations
- WEB The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and forth in the wide ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the lightnings.
- KJV The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.
- NKJV The chariots rage in the streets, They jostle one another in the broad roads; They seem like torches, They run like lightning.
- NASB The chariots drive wildly in the streets, They rush around in the public squares; Their appearance is like torches, They drive back and forth like lightning flashes.
- NLT The chariots race recklessly along the streets and rush wildly through the squares. They flash like firelight and move as swiftly as lightning.
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
Chariots race madly through the streets, flashing like torches and darting like lightning. The picture conveys the chaos of Nineveh's fall.
Overview
The frenzied movement of chariots dramatizes the speed and ferocity of the assault on the city. What was once an instrument of Assyrian terror against others now fills its own streets with panic. The scene reminds readers that those who wield violence against others may face the same in God's just reckoning.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 6
- Jer 4:13Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!
- Nah 3:2–3The crack of the whip, the rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot!
- Isa 66:15For behold, the LORD will come with fire—His chariots are like a whirlwind—to execute His anger with fury and His rebuke with flames of fire.
- Ezek 26:10His multitude of horses will cover you in their dust. When he enters your gates as an army entering a breached city, your walls will shake from the noise of cavalry, wagons, and chariots.
- Isa 37:24Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest heights, the densest of its forests.
- Dan 11:40At the time of the end, the king of the South will engage him in battle, but the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots, horsemen, and many ships, invading many countries and sweeping through them like a flood.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 2:4 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.