Nahum 2:4
What does Nahum 2:4 mean?
A plain-English look at Nahum 2:4 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Nahum 2:4 means
The battle surges within the very streets and broad avenues. Chariots race and swerve, their metal glinting like torches, darting like lightning. Nahum’s description captures panic and speed—war has breached the outer ring and is tearing through the city’s heart. What once symbolized order and grandeur becomes a racetrack of terror. The image is not only of power but of confusion; defenders have lost control of their own roads. The invaders’ momentum and agility outmatch any last-ditch resistance. The prophet emphasizes that the downfall will be public and unmistakable; the city’s proud spaces become the stage where its strength collapses before all who see.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000The chariots rage in the streets; they rush to and fro in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like torches; they run like the lightnings.
KJV
King James Version · 1611The 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.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901The chariots rage in the streets; they rush to and fro in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like torches; they run like the lightnings.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949The war-carriages are rushing through the streets, pushing against one another in the wide ways, looking like burning lights, running like thunder-flames.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862In out-places shine do the chariots, They go to and fro in broad places, Their appearances <FI>are<Fi> like torches, As lightnings they run.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752They are in confusion in the ways, the chariots jostle one against another in the streets: their looks are like torches, like lightning running to and fro.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890The chariots rush madly in the streets, they justle one against another in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like torches, they run like lightnings.
Context
This verse continues the kinetic picture begun in verse 3. The fighting is no longer at the gates; it overruns Nineveh’s interior. The next movement (verse 5) shifts to the city’s leadership scrambling to respond, and then (verse 6) to the decisive breach at the rivers. The flow moves from advancing force to urban chaos to structural collapse, marking an irreversible unraveling.
v.3The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots flash with steel in the day of his preparation, and the cypress spears are brandished.
v.4This passage
v.5He remembereth his nobles: they stumble in their march; they make haste to the wall thereof, and the mantelet is prepared.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Isaiah 37:24
By thy servants hast thou defied the Lord, and hast said, With the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the innermost parts of Lebanon; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir-trees thereof; and I will enter into its farthest height, the forest of its fruitful field;
- Isaiah 66:15
For, behold, Jehovah will come with fire, and his chariots shall be like the whirlwind; to render his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
- Nahum 3:2
The noise of the whip, and the noise of the rattling of wheels, and prancing horses, and bounding chariots,
- Jeremiah 4:13
Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are ruined.
- Ezekiel 26:10
By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wagons, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach.
- Daniel 11:40
And at the time of the end shall the king of the south contend with him; and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass through.
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