Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture.
Parallel translations
- WEB Take the plunder of silver. Take the plunder of gold, for there is no end of the store, the glory of all goodly furniture.
- BSB “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!” There is no end to the treasure, an abundance of every precious thing.
- NKJV Take spoil of silver! Take spoil of gold! There is no end of treasure, Or wealth of every desirable prize.
- NASB Plunder the silver, Plunder the gold! For there is no end to the treasure— Wealth from every kind of desirable object.
- NLT Loot the silver! Plunder the gold! There’s no end to Nineveh’s treasures— its vast, uncounted wealth.
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
The conquerors are told to plunder Nineveh's endless silver, gold, and treasures. The wealth Assyria amassed by violence is now seized by others.
Overview
Nineveh had grown rich through conquest and tribute extracted from many nations. Now its boundless store becomes spoil for its enemies, a fitting reversal of its plundering ways. This illustrates the biblical principle that ill-gotten gain offers no lasting security and that God can transfer it in a moment.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- 2 Chr 36:10And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.
- Ezek 26:12And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.
- Dan 11:8And shall also carry captives into Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and of gold; and he shall continue more years than the king of the north.
- Isa 33:4And your spoil shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpiller: as the running to and fro of locusts shall he run upon them.
- Nah 2:12–13The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.
- Jer 51:56Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of recompences shall surely requite.
- Jer 25:34Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel.
- Isa 33:1Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee.
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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 2:9 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
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