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Nahum 2

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1 ἀνέβη ἐμφυσῶν εἰς πρόσωπόν σου ἐξαιρούμενος ἐκ θλίψεως σκόπευσον ὁδόν κράτησον ὀσφύος ἄνδρισαι τῇ ἰσχύι σφόδρα 2 διότι ἀπέστρεψεν κύριος τὴν ὕβριν Ιακωβ καθὼς ὕβριν τοῦ Ισραηλ διότι ἐκτινάσσοντες ἐξετίναξαν αὐτοὺς καὶ τὰ κλήματα αὐτῶν διέφθειραν 3 ὅπλα δυναστείας αὐτῶν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἄνδρας δυνατοὺς ἐμπαίζοντας ἐν πυρί αἱ ἡνίαι τῶν ἁρμάτων αὐτῶν ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ἑτοιμασίας αὐτοῦ καὶ οἱ ἱππεῖς θορυβηθήσονται 4 ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς καὶ συγχυθήσονται τὰ ἅρματα καὶ συμπλακήσονται ἐν ταῖς πλατείαις ἡ ὅρασις αὐτῶν ὡς λαμπάδες πυρὸς καὶ ὡς ἀστραπαὶ διατρέχουσαι

1 Here is an enemy at thy gates that scatters all before him; here is close siege, no entry but must be guarded; gird thee well, summon up all thy strength! 2 Honour of Juda the Lord retrieves now, and honour of Israel both, that have seen the spoiler ransack them, strip vineyard bare.[1] 3 Bright flash that enemy’s shields, warriors of his go clad in scarlet; dart like flame his chariots as he goes to the attack, dizzily sways charioteer. 4 How jostle they in the streets, those chariots, hurtle they in the open market-place; dazzle they like flame of torches, like the lightning that comes and goes!

1

Ascendit qui dispergat coram te,
qui custodiat obsidionem:
contemplare viam, conforta lumbos,
robora virtutem valde. 2
Quia reddidit Dominus superbiam Jacob,
sicut superbiam Israël;
quia vastatores dissipaverunt eos,
et propagines eorum corruperunt. 3
Clypeus fortium ejus ignitus,
viri exercitus in coccineis;
igneæ habenæ currus in die præparationis ejus,
et agitatores consopiti sunt. 4
In itineribus conturbati sunt;
quadrigæ collisæ sunt in plateis:
aspectus eorum quasi lampades,
quasi fulgura discurrentia.

5 καὶ μνησθήσονται οἱ μεγιστᾶνες αὐτῶν καὶ φεύξονται ἡμέρας καὶ ἀσθενήσουσιν ἐν τῇ πορείᾳ αὐτῶν καὶ σπεύσουσιν ἐπὶ τὰ τείχη καὶ ἑτοιμάσουσιν τὰς προφυλακὰς αὐτῶν 6 πύλαι τῶν ποταμῶν διηνοίχθησαν καὶ τὰ βασίλεια διέπεσεν 7 καὶ ἡ ὑπόστασις ἀπεκαλύφθη καὶ αὕτη ἀνέβαινεν καὶ αἱ δοῦλαι αὐτῆς ἤγοντο καθὼς περιστεραὶ φθεγγόμεναι ἐν καρδίαις αὐτῶν 8 καὶ Νινευη ὡς κολυμβήθρα ὕδατος τὰ ὕδατα αὐτῆς καὶ αὐτοὶ φεύγοντες οὐκ ἔστησαν καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὁ ἐπιβλέπων 9 διήρπαζον τὸ ἀργύριον διήρπαζον τὸ χρυσίον καὶ οὐκ ἦν πέρας τοῦ κόσμου αὐτῆς βεβάρυνται ὑπὲρ πάντα τὰ σκεύη τὰ ἐπιθυμητὰ αὐτῆς 10 ἐκτιναγμὸς καὶ ἀνατιναγμὸς καὶ ἐκβρασμὸς καὶ καρδίας θραυσμὸς καὶ ὑπόλυσις γονάτων καὶ ὠδῖνες ἐπὶ πᾶσαν ὀσφύν καὶ τὸ πρόσωπον πάντων ὡς πρόσκαυμα χύτρας 11 ποῦ ἐστιν τὸ κατοικητήριον τῶν λεόντων καὶ ἡ νομὴ ἡ οὖσα τοῖς σκύμνοις οὗ ἐπορεύθη λέων τοῦ εἰσελθεῖν ἐκεῖ σκύμνος λέοντος καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὁ ἐκφοβῶν 12 λέων ἥρπασεν τὰ ἱκανὰ τοῖς σκύμνοις αὐτοῦ καὶ ἀπέπνιξεν τοῖς λέουσιν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔπλησεν θήρας νοσσιὰν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ κατοικητήριον αὐτοῦ ἁρπαγῆς 13 ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐπὶ σέ λέγει κύριος παντοκράτωρ καὶ ἐκκαύσω ἐν καπνῷ πλῆθός σου καὶ τοὺς λέοντάς σου καταφάγεται ῥομφαία καὶ ἐξολεθρεύσω ἐκ τῆς γῆς τὴν θήραν σου καὶ οὐ μὴ ἀκουσθῇ οὐκέτι τὰ ἔργα σου

5 Alas, for the muster-roll of the king’s vassals,[2] fallen as they went about their task! Swiftly they manned the walls, but the engines were in place already. 6 Open, now, stands the water-gate, crumbles yonder temple into dust. 7 Alas, for warriors of Nineve gone into exile, for maids of hers led away,[3] that sigh and moan like ring-doves in the bitterness of their heart! 8 Nineve, welcome sight as pools of water to the fugitive;[4] stay, stay! But never a one looks back. 9 Out with silver, out with gold of hers; store is here of costly stuff beyond price or reckoning! 10 Roof to cellar rifled and ransacked! Sore hearts are here, and knees that knock together, loins that go labouring, and pale cheeks.[5] 11 Lair of lion, and nursery of his whelps, what trace is left of thee, once so secure a retreat, his haunt and theirs? 12 Cub nor lioness should want, so preyed he, so mauled he, so filled with plunder of his forays the den where he lay. 13 Have at thee! says the Lord of hosts; yonder chariots shall be burnt to ashes; whelps of thine shall die at the sword’s point, plunder of thine be swept off the face of earth; and for thy heralds, their voices shall be heard no more.

5
Recordabitur fortium suorum;
ruent in itineribus suis:
velociter ascendent muros ejus,
et præparabitur umbraculum. 6
Portæ fluviorum apertæ sunt,
et templum ad solum dirutum. 7
Et miles captivus abductus est,
et ancillæ ejus minabantur gementes ut columbæ,
murmurantes in cordibus suis. 8
Et Ninive quasi piscina aquarum aquæ ejus;
ipsi vero fugerunt. State, state!
et non est qui revertatur. 9
Diripite argentum, diripite aurum:
et non est finis divitiarum ex omnibus vasis desiderabilibus. 10
Dissipata est, et scissa, et dilacerata;
et cor tabescens, et dissolutio geniculorum,
et defectio in cunctis renibus,
et facies omnium eorum sicut nigredo ollæ. 11
Ubi est habitaculum leonum,
et pascua catulorum leonum,
ad quam ivit leo ut ingrederetur illuc catulus leonis,
et non est qui exterreat? 12
Leo cepit sufficienter catulis suis,
et necavit leænis suis,
et implevit præda speluncas suas,
et cubile suum rapina. 13
Ecce ego ad te, dicit Dominus exercituum,
et succendam usque ad fumum quadrigas tuas,
et leunculos tuos comedet gladius,
et exterminabo de terra prædam tuam,
et non audietur ultra vox nuntiorum tuorum.

[1] Meaning and bearing of this verse are obscure; it tells us that the Lord will restore, or perhaps remove, or perhaps requite, the excellency, or perhaps the pride, of Jacob, and also that of Israel. ‘Jacob’ is a strict equivalent of ‘Israel’ as a rule; here, if the text is sound, it can only be conjectured that Jacob stands for Juda, and Israel for the ten tribes. Some think the whole verse has been accidentally misplaced.

[2] Literally, ‘he will remember (or perhaps mention) his princes’. There is no evidence that the verb can mean ‘to summon’, and the phrase is so awkward that we may be tempted to suspect the prophet wrote something else; e.g. ‘his menfolk, his princes’.

[3] The word rendered ‘warriors’ in the Latin more probably refers, perhaps by a proper name, to some queen or goddess; the word used for ‘maids’ has, everywhere else, the sense of female attendants.

[4] ‘Nineve, welcome sight as pools of water to the fugitive’; the Hebrew text here differs from that of the Septuagint Greek, and of the Latin, but the literal sense is probably, ‘Nineve is a pool of water; water is she, and they fugitives’. The meaning of the verse can only be conjectured.

[5] ‘Pale cheeks’; literally, ‘faces like the blackness of a pot’. We may compare Joel 2.6, where the Latin renders the same phrase, ‘all faces shall be turned into a pot’. The literal meaning of the Hebrew text is that they will gather some kind of complexion perhaps best described as ‘lividness’; the noun does not occur anywhere else.

Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd