23:28 “For this is what the sovereign Lord says: Look here, 2 I am about to deliver you over to 3 those whom you hate, to those with whom you were disgusted.
10:5 Assyria, the club I use to vent my anger, is as good as dead, 5
a cudgel with which I angrily punish. 6
10:6 I sent him 7 against a godless 8 nation,
I ordered him to attack the people with whom I was angry, 9
to take plunder and to carry away loot,
to trample them down 10 like dirt in the streets.
1:6 Look, I am about to empower 12 the Babylonians,
that ruthless 13 and greedy 14 nation.
They sweep across the surface 15 of the earth,
seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them.
1:7 They are frightening and terrifying;
they decide for themselves what is right. 16
1:8 Their horses are faster than leopards
and more alert 17 than wolves in the desert. 18
Their horses 19 gallop, 20
their horses come a great distance;
like a vulture 21 they swoop down quickly to devour their prey. 22
1:9 All of them intend 23 to do violence;
every face is determined. 24
They take prisoners as easily as one scoops up sand. 25
1:10 They mock kings
and laugh at rulers.
They laugh at every fortified city;
they build siege ramps 26 and capture them.
1 tn Heb “I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the sons of Assyria.”
2 tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.
3 tn Heb “I am giving you into the hand of.”
4 sn Harlots suffered degradation when their nakedness was exposed (Jer 13:22, 26; Hos 2:12; Nah 3:5).
5 tn Heb “Woe [to] Assyria, the club of my anger.” On הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) see the note on the first phrase of 1:4.
6 tn Heb “a cudgel is he, in their hand is my anger.” It seems likely that the final mem (ם) on בְיָדָם (bÿyadam) is not a pronominal suffix (“in their hand”), but an enclitic mem. If so, one can translate literally, “a cudgel is he in the hand of my anger.”
7 sn Throughout this section singular forms are used to refer to Assyria; perhaps the king of Assyria is in view (see v. 12).
8 tn Or “defiled”; cf. ASV “profane”; NAB “impious”; NCV “separated from God.”
9 tn Heb “and against the people of my anger I ordered him.”
10 tn Heb “to make it [i.e., the people] a trampled place.”
11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Isaiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
12 tn Heb “raise up” (so KJV, ASV).
13 tn Heb “bitter.” Other translation options for this word in this context include “fierce” (NASB, NRSV); “savage” (NEB); or “grim.”
14 tn Heb “hasty, quick.” Some translate here “impetuous” (so NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “rash,” but in this context greed may very well be the idea. The Babylonians move quickly and recklessly ahead in their greedy quest to expand their empire.
15 tn Heb “the open spaces.”
16 tn Heb “from him his justice, even his lifting up, goes out.” In this context שְׂאֵת (sÿ’et) probably has the nuance “authority.” See R. D. Patterson, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah (WEC), 150.
17 tn Heb “sharper,” in the sense of “keener” or “more alert.” Some translate “quicker” on the basis of the parallelism with the first line (see HALOT 291 s.v. חדד).
18 tn Heb “wolves of the evening,” that is, wolves that prowl at night. The present translation assumes an emendation to עֲרָבָה (’aravah, “desert”). On this phrase see also Zeph 3:3.
19 tn Or “horsemen,” “cavalry.”
20 tn The precise nuance of the rare verb פָּוַשׁ (parash) is unclear here. Elsewhere it is used of animals jumping or leaping (see Jer 50:11; Mal 4:2).
21 tn Or “eagle” (so NASB, NRSV). The term can refer to either eagles or vultures, but in this context of gruesome destruction and death “vulture” is preferred.
22 tn Heb “they fly like a vulture/an eagle quickly to devour.” The direct object “their prey” is not included in the Hebrew text but is implied, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
23 tn Heb “come.”
24 tn Heb “The totality of their faces is to the east” (or “is forward”). The precise meaning of the Hebrew term מְגַמַּת (megammat) is unclear. For a discussion of options see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 93. NEB has “a sea of faces rolls on”; NIV “their hordes advance like a desert wind”; NRSV “with faces pressing forward.”
25 tn Heb “and he gathers like sand, prisoners.”
26 tn Heb “they heap up dirt.” This is a reference to the piling up of earthen ramps in the process of laying siege to a fortified city.
27 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
28 tn A new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
29 tn The final clause could also be turned into an adverbial clause of means: “They will consume her flesh by burning her with fire.”