1He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your power mightily!
2For Yahweh restores the excellency of Jacob as the excellency 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 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 wide ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the lightnings. 5He summons his picked troops. They stumble on their way. They dash to 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 servants moan as with the voice of doves, beating on their breasts. 8But Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water, yet they flee away. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one looks back. 9Take the plunder of silver. Take the plunder of gold, for there is no end of treasure, an abundance of every precious thing. 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 with the lion’s cubs, and no one made them afraid? 12The lion tore in pieces enough for his cubs, and strangled prey for his lionesses, and filled his caves with the kill and his dens with prey. 13“Behold, 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 messengers will no longer be heard.”
It may seem a little on the ironic side when you find out that the name Nahum actually means comfort. Of course, for the Assyrians there is no comfort in the foretelling of the battle and destruction for them in the days ahead. However, for the Children of God the defeat of Nineveh would be a welcome relief to the years of tyranny they had suffered at their hands.
There is thread of thought in verse 2 and it would be easy to miss in all the talk of battle but it brings comfort that a new order is coming and glimmers of hope for the future appear. The crushed and broken Judah defeated at the hands of the Assyrians will have restoration of honour and splendour, while its cruel enemy will be destroyed for forever. The Old Testament is littered with these restorational promises as God returns beauty for ashes, joy for mourning and a garment of praise in place of despair. The voice of the battle seems louder, the rage of the enemy seems great. The after math of the sin of the world around has left carnage and devastation. Brokenness and poverty abound, yet in the turmoil of all that, God’s voice of hope still speaks. I will restore, I will comfort, I will heal and I will set the crooked straight. It can be hard to hear the voice of God’s comfort in the chaos of each crisis, but it still rings out true and unchanging. What once was laid low will be raised up, what was broken will be made whole and what was lost will be found. The enemy will be silenced forever and the people of God set free.