1:9 All of them intend 1 to do violence;
every face is determined. 2
They take prisoners as easily as one scoops up sand. 3
1:10 They mock kings
and laugh at rulers.
They laugh at every fortified city;
they build siege ramps 4 and capture them.
1 tn Heb “come.”
2 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.”
3 tn Heb “and he gathers like sand, prisoners.”
4 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.