Nahum 2:13 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Nahum 2:13
Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֣הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
hosts
צְבָא֔וֹתtze.va.'ot
H6635
a mass of persons (or figuratively · noun, common feminine plural absolute
burn
וְהִבְעַרְתִּ֤יve.hiv.'ar.Ti
H1197
to kindle · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
chariots
רִכְבָּ֔הּrikh.Bah
H7393
a vehicle · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
smoke
בֶֽעָשָׁן֙ve.'a.Shan
H6227
smoke · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
sword
חָ֑רֶבCha.rev
H2719
drought · noun, common feminine singular absolute
devour
תֹּ֣אכַלTo.khal
H398
to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
lions
וּכְפִירַ֖יִךְu.khe.fi.Ra.yikh
H3715
a village (as covered in by walls) · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
off
וְהִכְרַתִּ֤יve.hikh.ra.Ti
H3772
to cut (off · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 1st person common singular
prey
טַרְפֵּ֔ךְtar.Pekh
H2964
something torn · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
earth
מֵאֶ֙רֶץ֙me.'E.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition + noun, common feminine singular absolute
voice
ק֥וֹלKol
H6963
a voice or sound · noun, common masculine singular construct
messengers
מַלְאָכֵֽכֵהmal.'a.Khe.kheh
H4397
a messenger · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
heard
יִשָּׁמַ֥עyi.sha.Ma'
H8085
to hear intelligently (often with implication of attent… · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 46:9 He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.
Jeremiah 21:13 Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain, saith the LORD; which say, Who shall come down against us? or…
Nahum 3:5 Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness,…
2 Kings 19:23 By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountain…
Joshua 11:9 And Joshua did unto them as the LORD bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.
2 Kings 19:9 And when he heard say of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, Behold, he is come out to fight against thee: he sent messengers again unto Hezekiah, sa…
Isaiah 49:24-25 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
Ezekiel 5:8 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, am against thee, and will execute judgments in the midst of thee in the sight of the n…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Nahum 2:11–end
Here we have Nineveh's ruin, 1. Triumphed in by its neighbours, who now remember against it all the oppressions and abuse of power it had been guilty of in its pomp and prosperity (Nah 2:11, Nah 2:12): Where is the dwelling of the lions? It is gone; there appear no remnants, no footsteps, of it. Where is the feeding place of the young lions, where they glutted themselves with prey? The princes of Nineveh had been as lions, as beasts of prey; cruel tyrants are no better, nay, in this respect much worse - that, being men, humanity is expected from them; nay, if they were indeed lions, they would not prey upon those of their own kind. Savis inter se convenit ursae - Fierce bears agree together.…
burn . . . in the smoke--or (so as to pass) "into smoke," that is, "entirely" [MAURER], (Psa 37:20; Psa 46:9). CALVIN, like English Version, explains, As soon as the flame catches, and the fire smokes, by the mere smoke I will burn her chariots.
cut off thy prey from the earth--Thou shalt no more carry off prey from the nations of the earth.
the voice of thy messengers . . . no more . . . heard--No more shall thy emissaries be heard throughout thy provinces conveying thy king's commands, and exacting tribute of subject nations.
Next: Nahum Chapter 3
Adam Clarke on Nahum 2:13
Behold, I am against thee - Assyria, and Nineveh its capital. I will deal with you as you have dealt with others.
The voice of thy messengers - Announcing thy splendid victories, and the vast spoils taken - shall no more be heard - thou and thy riches, and ill-got spoils, shall perish together.
John Gill on Nahum 2:13
Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts,.... Against Nineveh, and the whole Assyrian empire, for such rapine, violence, and oppression, their kings had been guilty of; and if he, who is the Lord of hosts, of all the armies of heaven and earth, was against them, nothing but ruin must inevitably ensue: or, "I come unto thee" (s); or will shortly come unto thee, and reckon with thee for all this; will visit thee in a way of wrath and vengeance. The Targum is,
"behold, I will send my fury upon thee:''
and I will burn her chariots in the smoke; either those in which the inhabitants of Nineveh rode in great splendour about the city; or those which were used in war with their enemies;…
The Church Fathers
(v. 13) Behold, I am coming to you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will set fire to your chariots until they are smoking, and the sword will devour your young lions, and I will eliminate your plunder from the land, and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard. (LXX: Behold, I am coming to you, says the Almighty Lord, and I will set fire to your multitude until it is smoke, and the sword will devour your lions, and I will take away your plunder from the land, and your works will no longer be heard.) O Nineveh, all that has been said, with me as the author, you will suffer. I, the Lord, will set fire to your chariots until they are smoking and consumed, and I will make even your nobles and officials be devoured by the sword. You will no longer ravage the lands, nor demand tribute, and your messengers will not be heard throughout your provinces. Even if I do not hear the angels, who are your guardians, praying continuously for your protection. But these same words are also spoken to the world, where there is a multitude that travels along a broad and spacious road leading to death (Matthew 7), which the Lord threatens to set ablaze, suffocating in the smoke of its own wickedness (or excessive goodness). The sword will also devour lions, the living word of God, sharp and polished on all sides. It promises to take away its prey from the land, so that no one in Nineveh will be captured, and like a merciful one, it removes evil deeds and suppresses them, so that the sound of their voice and noise can no longer be heard. Hence it says: And your deeds will no longer be heard.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Nahum — Consolation, the seventh of the so-called minor prophets, an Elkoshite. All we know of him is recorded in the book of his prophecies. He was probably a native of Galilee, and after the deportation of…
Prophecy — Or prediction, was one of the functions of the prophet. It has been defined as a “miracle of knowledge, a declaration or description or representation of something future, beyond the power of human…
Chariots · The Jews condemned for: Taken in war, often destroyed — The Jews condemned for: Taken in war, often destroyed
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Nahum 2:13
13. Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.
13. Ecce Ego ad te dicit Jehova exercituum, et comburam in fumo currum ejus, et leunculos tuos comedet gladius, et excidam e terra praedam tuam, et non audietur amplius vox nunciorum tuorum (aut, dentium molarium.)
To give more effect to what he says, the Prophet introduces God here as the speaker. Behold, he says, I am against thee He has been hitherto, as it were, the herald of God, and in this character gave an authoritative command to…
Thus will the mighty city be destroyed, with its men of war and booty. Nah 2:11. "Where is the dwelling of the lions and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion walked, the lioness, the lion's whelp, and no one frightened? Nah 2:12. The lion robbing for the need of his young ones, and strangling for his lionesses, and he filled his dens with prey, and his dwelling-places with spoil. Nah 2:13. Behold, O come to thee, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts, and I cause her chariots to turn in smoke, and thy young lions the sword devours; and I cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall be heard no more." The prophet, beholding the destruction in spirit as ha…
Examples of the voices of Assyria’s proud messengers are found in 2 Kgs 18:19–19:13.
Rashi on Nahum 2:13
The grown lion tore enough for his whelps—As Jonathan renders it: The kings would bring much plunder, until there was enough for the members of their households.
and strangled—beasts, for the necessity of his lionesses; i.e., he would increase his treasures for his children (sic). for his lionesses—for his wives.
and he filled his caves with prey—And they filled their treasuries with plunder.
