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Tuesday, April 29th, 2025
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Read the Bible

King James Version

Nahum 2:1

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.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Armies;   Munitions;   Watchfulness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Fortresses;   Nineveh;  

Dictionaries:

- Fausset Bible Dictionary - Arms;   Hammer;   Maul;   Nahum (2);   Holman Bible Dictionary - Loins;   Nahum;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Munition;   Nahum;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Munition;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Assyria;   Obsolete or obscure words in the english av bible;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - War;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Dash;   Nahum, the Book of;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Church Fathers;   Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius);   Peace-Offering;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
One who scatters is coming up against you.
Hebrew Names Version
He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your loins! Fortify your power mightily!
King James Version (1611)
He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way: make thy loines strong: fortifie thy power mightily.
English Standard Version
The scatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; dress for battle; collect all your strength.
New American Standard Bible
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.
New Century Version
The destroyer is coming to attack you, Nineveh. Guard the defenses. Watch the road. Get ready. Gather all your strength!
Amplified Bible
The one who scatters has come up against you [Nineveh]. Man the fortress and ramparts, watch the road; Strengthen your back [prepare for battle], summon all your strength.
Geneva Bible (1587)
The destroyer is come before thy face: keepe the munition: looke to the way: make thy loynes strong: increase thy strength mightily.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
The one who scatters has come up against you. Man the fortress, watch the road; Strengthen your back, summon all your strength.
Legacy Standard Bible
The one who scatters has come up against you.Guard the fortification, watch the road;Strengthen your loins, instill your power with exceeding courage.
Berean Standard Bible
One who scatters advances against you, O Nineveh. Guard the fortress! Watch the road! Brace yourself! Summon all your strength!
Contemporary English Version
Nineveh, someone is coming to attack and scatter you. Guard your fortresses! Watch the road! Be brave! Prepare for battle!
Complete Jewish Bible
Look! On the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, proclaiming shalom. Keep your festivals, Y'hudah, fulfill your vows; for B'liya‘al will never pass through you again; he has been completely destroyed.
Darby Translation
He that dasheth in pieces is come up against thy face: keep the fortress, watch the way, make [thy] loins strong, fortify [thy] power mightily.
Easy-to-Read Version
An enemy is coming to attack you, so guard the strong places of your city. Watch the road. Get ready for war. Prepare for battle!
George Lamsa Translation
A RULER has come up against you who keeps a watch, guards the road, and girds loins; whose strength is exceedingly great.
Good News Translation
Nineveh, you are under attack! The power that will shatter you has come. Prepare the defenses! Guard the road! Prepare for battle!
Lexham English Bible
One who shatters has come up against you! Guard the fortification! Watch the road! Gird your loins! Muster all your strength!
Literal Translation
The one scattering is coming up against your face. Guard the rampart; watch the way; make the loins strong, firm up your power exceedingly.
American Standard Version
He that dasheth in pieces is come up against thee: keep the fortress, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.
Bible in Basic English
A crusher has come up before your face: keep a good look-out, let the way be watched, make yourself strong, let your power be greatly increased.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that announceth peace! Keep thy feasts, O Judah, perform thy vows; for the wicked one shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The destroyer is come vp before thy face, kepe thy forte, see to the way, strenghten [thy] loynes, increase [thy] strength mightyly:
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
It is all over with him, he has been removed, one who has been delivered from affliction has come up panting into thy presence, watch the way, strengthen thy loins, be very valiant in thy strength.
English Revised Version
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.
World English Bible
He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your loins! Fortify your power mightily!
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
He stiede up, that schal scatere bifore thee, that schal kepe bisechyng; biholde thou the weie, coumforte leendis, strengthe thou vertu greetli.
Update Bible Version
He that dashes in pieces has come up against you: keep the fortress, watch the way, make your loins strong, fortify your power mightily.
Webster's Bible Translation
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.
New English Translation
The watchmen of Nineveh shout: "An enemy who will scatter you is marching out to attack you!" "Guard the rampart! Watch the road! Prepare yourselves for battle! Muster your mighty strength!"
New King James Version
He who scatters [fn] has come up before your face.Man the fort!Watch the road!Strengthen your flanks!Fortify your power mightily.
New Living Translation
Your enemy is coming to crush you, Nineveh. Man the ramparts! Watch the roads! Prepare your defenses! Call out your forces!
New Life Bible
The one who destroys has come against you, O Nineveh. Put men on the battle-walls. Watch the road. Be strong. Be ready for battle.
New Revised Standard
A shatterer has come up against you. Guard the ramparts; watch the road; gird your loins; collect all your strength.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
He that breaketh in pieces hath come up over thy face, Keep the keeps, - watch the way, brace the loins, make vigour very firm.
Douay-Rheims Bible
He is come up that shall destroy before thy face, that shall keep the siege: watch the way, fortify thy loins, strengthen thy power exceedingly.
Revised Standard Version
The shatterer has come up against you. Man the ramparts; watch the road; gird your loins; collect all your strength.
Young's Literal Translation
Come up hath a scatterer to thy face, Keep the bulwark, watch the way, Strengthen the loins, strengthen power mightily.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The scaterer shal come vp agaynst the, & laye sege to the castell. Loke thou wel to the stretes, make thy loynes stronge, arme thy self with all thy myght:
THE MESSAGE
The juggernaut's coming! Post guards, lay in supplies. Get yourselves together, get ready for the big battle.

Contextual Overview

1 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. 2 For the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches. 3 The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. 4 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. 5 He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared. 6 The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved. 7 And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts. 8 But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back. 9 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. 10 She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

He that dasheth in pieces: or, The disperser, or, hammer, Isaiah 14:6, Jeremiah 25:9, Jeremiah 50:23, Jeremiah 51:20-23

keep: Nahum 3:14, Nahum 3:15, 2 Chronicles 25:8, Jeremiah 46:3-10, Jeremiah 51:11, Jeremiah 51:12, Joel 3:9-11

Reciprocal: Isaiah 13:18 - shall dash Jonah 1:2 - Nineveh Micah 7:10 - she that Nahum 3:11 - thou also Zephaniah 3:6 - cut

Cross-References

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:10
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 2:3
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Genesis 2:4
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
Genesis 2:5
And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
Genesis 2:8
And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
Genesis 2:11
The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
Genesis 2:13
And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
Exodus 20:11
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Exodus 31:17
It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face,.... O Nineveh, or land of Assyria; for this is not to be understood of Sennacherib's coming up against Jerusalem, as Kimchi; but of Nebuchadnezzar against Nineveh, as Aben Ezra; not Nebuchadnezzar the great, who, the Jewish chronologers say c, took Nineveh in the first year of his reign; but his father, Nebuchadnezzar the first, called Nabopolassar, who, with Cyaxares or Ahasuerus the Mede, joined their forces against Nineveh, and took it, see the Apocrypha:

"But before he died he heard of the destruction of Nineve, which was taken by Nabuchodonosor and Assuerus: and before his death he rejoiced over Nineve.'' (Tobit 14:15)

and these together, the Chaldeans and Medes, are the "dasher in pieces"; or, "the hammer" d, as the word may be rendered; and so Babylon, over which one of these kings reigned, is called the hammer of the whole earth, Jeremiah 50:23 these came up openly, boldly, to the face of the king of Assyria, attacked him in his metropolis, not fearing his strength and numbers:

keep the munition; this and what follow are spoken ironically to the Assyrian king, and inhabitants of Nineveh, to take care of their towers and garrisons, and fortify them, and fill them with soldiers: and

watch the way; in which the enemy came; secure the passes and avenues that lead to their city; stop his march, and prevent his access:

make [thy] loins strong; put on armour, gird on the sword, prepare for war:

fortify [thy] power mightily; increase thine army, exert all thy strength and courage, and do all that is in thy power to do, to oppose the enemy, and defend thyself; and when all is done, it will be in vain.

c Seder Olam Rabba, c. 24. p. 69. d מפיץ "malleus", Drusius, Tarnovius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He that dasheth in pieces - Rather, “the Disperser,” the instrument of God, whereby he should “break her in pieces like a potter’s vessel, or should scatter” her in all lands, is come up against thy face, O Nineveh, i. e., either, over against thee” , confronting her as it were, face to face, or directed against thee . From the description of the peace of Judah, the prophet turns suddenly to her oppressor, to whom, not to Judah, the rest of the prophecy is directed. Jacob and Israel are spoken of, not to . The destroyer of Nineveh “went up against the face of Nineveh,” not in the presence of Judah and Jacob, who were far away and knew nothing of it. “Keep the munition.” While all in Judah is now peace, all in Nineveh is tumult. God whom they had defied, saying that Hezekiah could not “turn away the face of one captain of the least of his servants” Isaiah 36:9, now bids them prepare to meet him whom He would send against them. “Gird up thy loins now, like a man” Job 40:7. Thou who wouldest lay waste others, now, if theft canst, keep thyself. The strength of the words is the measure of the irony. They had challenged God; He in turn challenges them to put forth all their might.

Fence thy defenses - we might say. Their strong walls, high though they were, unassailable by any then known skill of besiegers, would not be secure.

The prophet uses a kindred and allusive word, that their protection needed to be itself protected; and this, by one continued watchfulness. Watch, he adds, the way: spy out (as far as thou canst), the coming of the enemy; strengthen the loins, the seat of strength. Elsewhere they are said to be girded up for any exertion. “Fortify thy strength exceedingly.” The expression is rare : commonly it is said of some part of the human frame, knees, arms, or mind, or of man by God.

The same words are strong mockery to those who resist God, good counsel to those who trust in God. “Keep the munition, for He who keepeth thee will not sleep Psalms 121:3; watch the way,” by which the enemy may approach from afar, for Satan approacheth, sometimes suddenly, sometimes very stealthily and subtly, “transforming himself into an angel of light.” Jerome: “Watch also the way by which thou art to go, as it is said, ‘Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein;’ Jeremiah 6:16, so that, having stood in many ways, we may come to that Way which saith, ‘I am the Way.’” Then , “make thy loins strong,” as the Saviour commands His disciples, “Let your loins be girded about” Luke 12:35, and the Apostle says, “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth” Ephesians 6:14; for nothing so strengthens as the Truth. For Christ being the Truth, whose with his whole heart hath belived in Christ, is strong against himself, and hath power over the loins, the seat of the passions. Then, since this warfare is hard, he adds, be strong, “fortify thy power mightily;” resist not listlessly, but vehemently; and that, in His strength who hath strengthened our nature, taking it to Himself and uniting it with the Godhead. For without Him, strong though thou be, thou wilt avail nothing.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER II

Nineveh is now called upon to prepare for the approach of her

enemies, the instruments of Jehovah's vengeance, 1;

and the military array and muster, the very arms and dress, of

the Medes and Babylonians in the reigns of Cyaxares and

Nabopolassar; their rapid approach to the city; the process of

the siege, and the inundation of the river; the capture of the

place; the captivity, lamentation, and flight of the

inhabitants; the sacking of this immense, wealthy, and

exceedingly populous city; and the consequent desolation and

terror, are all described in the pathetic, vivid, and sublime

imagery of Hebrew poetry, 2-10.

This description is succeeded by a very beautiful and

expressive allegory, 11-12;

which is immediately explained, and applied to the city of

Nineveh, 13.

It is thought by some commentators that the metropolitan city

of the Assyrian empire is also intended by the tender and

beautiful simile, in the seventh verse, of a great princess

led captive, with her maids of honour attending her, bewailing

her and their own condition, by beating their breasts, and by

other expressions of sorrow.

NOTES ON CHAP. II

Verse Nahum 2:1. He that dasheth in pieces — Or scattereth. The Chaldeans and Medes.

Keep the munition — Guard the fenced places. From this to the end of the fifth verse, the preparations made at Nineveh to repel their enemies are described. The description is exceedingly picturesque.

Watch the way — By which the enemy is most likely to approach.

Make thy loins strong — Take courage.

Fortify thy power — Muster thy troops; call in all thy allies.


 
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