Nahum 2:12
What does Nahum 2:12 mean?
A plain-English look at Nahum 2:12 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Nahum 2:12 means
The lion tore enough for its whelps and strangled for its lionesses, filling caves and dens with spoil. Nahum applies this to Assyria: the empire fed its people and elites by violence and plunder, stockpiling goods taken from others. The picture is not of survival but of greed institutionalized, a den crammed with ill-gotten gain. What they called provision, God names ravin. The verse indicts the entire economy of oppression. It also implies poetic justice: as they filled their hiding places with prey, so those places are now searched and emptied. The imagery invites readers to evaluate power by its fruit—does it nourish by justice, or by devouring the weak? Assyria chose the latter and reaps ruin.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000The 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.
KJV
King James Version · 1611The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901The 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.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949Food enough for his young and for his she-lions was pulled down by the lion; his hole was full of flesh and his resting-place stored with meat.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862The lion is tearing parts <FI>for<Fi> his whelps, And is strangling for his lionesses, And he doth fill <FI>with<Fi> prey his holes, And his habitations <FI>with<Fi> rapine.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752The lion caught enough for his whelps, and killed for his lionesses: and he filled his holes with prey, and his den with rapine.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890The lion tore in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.
Context
This follows the rhetorical question of verse 11 by detailing the lion’s predatory habits as a mirror of Assyria’s policies. It sets up the climactic divine declaration in verse 13, where Jehovah of hosts vows to end the machinery and messengers of such violence. The progression moves from memory of past power to analysis of its methods, then to God’s personal opposition.
v.11Where 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?
v.12This passage
v.13Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah 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.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Psalms 17:12
He is like a lion that is greedy of his prey, And as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
- Isaiah 10:6
I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
- Jeremiah 51:34
Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath, like a monster, swallowed me up, he hath filled his maw with my delicacies; he hath cast me out.
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