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The Destruction of the Wicked City

A shatterer has come up against you.

Guard the ramparts;

watch the road;

gird your loins;

collect all your strength.

(For the L ord is restoring the majesty of Jacob,

as well as the majesty of Israel,

though ravagers have ravaged them

and ruined their branches.)

The shields of his warriors are red;

his soldiers are clothed in crimson.

The metal on the chariots flashes

on the day when he musters them;

the chargers prance.

The chariots race madly through the streets,

they rush to and fro through the squares;

their appearance is like torches,

they dart like lightning.

He calls his officers;

they stumble as they come forward;

they hasten to the wall,

and the mantelet is set up.

The river gates are opened,

the palace trembles.

It is decreed that the city be exiled,

its slave women led away,

moaning like doves

and beating their breasts.

Nineveh is like a pool

whose waters run away.

“Halt! Halt!”—

but no one turns back.

“Plunder the silver,

plunder the gold!

There is no end of treasure!

An abundance of every precious thing!”

Devastation, desolation, and destruction!

Hearts faint and knees tremble,

all loins quake,

all faces grow pale!

What became of the lions’ den,

the cave of the young lions,

where the lion goes,

and the lion’s cubs, with no one to disturb them?

The lion has torn enough for his whelps

and strangled prey for his lionesses;

he has filled his caves with prey

and his dens with torn flesh.

¹³ See, I am against you, says the L ord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall be heard no more.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Here the Prophet triumphs over the Assyrians, because they thought that the city Nineveh was remote from every danger: as lions, who fear nothing, when they are in their dens, draw thither their prey in their claws or in their mouths: so also was the case with the Assyrians; thinking themselves safe, while Nineveh flourished, they took the greater liberty to commit plunders everywhere. For Nineveh was not only the receptacle of robbers but was also like a den of lions. And the Prophet more fully expresses the barbarous cruelty of the Assyrians by comparing them to lions, than if he had simply called them lions. We now then see what he means, when he says, Where is the place of lions? And he designedly speaks thus of the Assyrians: for no one ever thought that they could be touched by even the least injury; the fear of them had indeed so seized all men, that of themselves they submitted to the Assyrians. As then no one dared to oppose them, the Prophet says, Where? as though he had said that though all thought it incredible that Nineveh could be overthrown, it would yet thus happen. But he assumes the character of one expressing his astonishment, in order to intimate, that when the Lord should execute such a judgment, it would be a work of wonder, which would fill almost all with amazement. This question then proves that those are very foolish who form a judgment of God’s vengeance, of which the Prophet speaks, according to the appearance of things at the time; for the ruin of Nineveh and of that empire was to be the incomprehensible work of God, and which was to fill all minds with astonishment.

He says first, Where is the place of lions? The feminine gender is indeed here used; but all agree that the Prophet speaks of male lions. ²³⁶²³⁶     It is better to retain the gender as it is in Hebrew: and this makes the passage more consistent, and corresponds better with the “feeding-place” in the next line. The recesses of the lionesses and the whelps are here mentioned, and in the next verse is stated what the lions did for them: —
   11. Where is the haunt of the lionesses,
And the feeding-place, even that for the whelps,
Where did go the lion, the lioness, the cub of the lion,
And none made them afraid?
   12. The lion ravined for the supply of his cubs,
And strangled for his lionesses,
And filled with ravin his dens,
And his haunts by ravining.
   “The allegory,” says Newcome, “is beyond measure beautiful. Where are the inhabitants of Nineveh, who were strong and rapacious like lions?” — Ed. He then adds, the place of feeding for lions? כפרים, caphrim, mean young lions as we shall hereafter see; and אריות, ariut, are old lions. He afterwards adds, Where אריה, arie came: and then comes לביא, labia, which some render, lioness; but לביא, labia, properly means an old lion; the Prophet, no doubt, uses it in the next verse in the feminine gender for lionesses. I therefore do not deny, but that we may fitly render the terms here, lion and lioness; afterwards, and the whelp of lions, and none terrifying. He then adds, Seize did the lion (the word is אריה, arie) for his whelps to satiety, that is, sufficiently; and strangle did he for his lionesses, ללבאתיו, lalabatiu. Here no doubt the Prophet means lionesses; there would otherwise be no consistency in the passage. He afterwards says,

²³⁶ It is better to retain the gender as it is in Hebrew: and this makes the passage more consistent, and corresponds better with the “feeding-place” in the next line. The recesses of the lionesses and the whelps are here mentioned, and in the next verse is stated what the lions did for them: — 11. Where is the haunt of the lionesses, And the feeding-place, even that for the whelps, Where did go the lion, the lioness, the cub of the lion, And none made them afraid? 12. The lion ravined for the supply of his cubs, And strangled for his lionesses, And filled with ravin his dens, And his haunts by ravining. “The allegory,” says Newcome, “is beyond measure beautiful. Where are the inhabitants of Nineveh, who were strong and rapacious like lions?” — Ed.