Nahum 2:11
What does Nahum 2:11 mean?
A plain-English look at Nahum 2:11 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Nahum 2:11 means
Nahum taunts the fallen city with a question: Where is the lions’ den now? Nineveh had been the lair where the lion, lioness, and whelps stalked fearlessly—an image for Assyria’s ruthless security and constant feeding on prey. Once, no one dared disturb their haunt. Now the den is empty. The prophet exposes the myth of invincibility; the mighty predator is not above judgment. By invoking family imagery—lion, lioness, cubs—Nahum shows that Assyria’s whole system, from rulers to offspring, depended on tearing prey. That entire way of life disappears when God arises. The question implies an answer: it is gone, and with it the false refuge of terror.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?
KJV
King James Version · 1611Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feedingplace of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Where is the lions' hole, the place where the young lions got their food, where the lion and the she-lion were walking with their young, without cause for fear?
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Where <FI>is<Fi> the habitation of lionesses? And a feeding-place it <FI>is<Fi> for young lions Where walked hath a lion, an old lion, A lion's whelp, and there is none troubling.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Where is now the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, to which the lion went, to enter in thither, the young lion, and there was none to make them afraid?
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Where is [now] the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion, the lioness, [and] the lion's whelp walked, and none made them afraid?
Context
After describing desolation in verse 10, Nahum contrasts present ruin with former pride using the lion metaphor. Verse 12 will extend the image to the lion’s methods—tearing and storing prey—before verse 13 delivers the Lord’s direct sentence. The taunt prepares the reader to see that what seemed natural for Assyria—living by plunder—was in fact culpable and doomed.
v.10She is empty, and void, and waste; and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of them all are waxed pale.
v.11This passage
v.12The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with ravin.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Jeremiah 2:15
The young lions have roared upon him, and yelled; and they have made his land waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant.
- Jeremiah 4:7
A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make thy land desolate, that thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.
- Nahum 3:1
Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and rapine; the prey departeth not.
- Isaiah 5:29
their roaring shall be like a lioness, they shall roar like young lions; yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey, and carry it away safe, and there shall be none to deliver.
- Jeremiah 50:44
Behold, the enemy shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoso is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd that can stand before me?
- Isaiah 31:4
For thus saith Jehovah unto me, As the lion and the young lion growling over his prey, if a multitude of shepherds be called forth against him, will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so will Jehovah of hosts come down to fight upon mount Zion, and upon the hill thereof.
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