New English Translation
Nahum 2:10
10Destruction, devastation, and desolation! Their hearts faint, their knees tremble, each stomach churns, each face turns pale!
Nahum 2:10 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.
- New International Version (NIV)She is pillaged, plundered, stripped! Hearts melt, knees give way, bodies tremble, every face grows pale.
- English Standard Version (ESV)Desolate! Desolation and ruin! Hearts melt and knees tremble; anguish is in all loins; all faces grow pale!
- New King James Version (NKJV)She is empty, desolate, and waste! The heart melts, and the knees shake; Much pain is in every side, And all their faces are drained of color.
Context of Nahum 2:10
8Nineveh was like a pool of water throughout her days, but now her people are running away; she cries out: “Stop! Stop!” – but no one turns back. 9Her conquerors cry out: “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!” There is no end to the treasure; riches of every kind of precious thing. Destruction, devastation, and desolation! Their hearts faint, their knees tremble, each stomach churns, each face turns pale! 11Where now is the den of the lions, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, lioness, and lion cub once prowled and no one disturbed them? 12The lion tore apart as much prey as his cubs needed and strangled prey to provide food for his lionesses; he filled his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh.
Read all of Nahum 2Nahum 2:10 word by word
בּוּקָ֥ה וּמְבוּקָ֖ה וּמְבֻלָּקָ֑ה וְלֵ֨ב נָמֵ֜ס וּפִ֣ק בִּרְכַּ֗יִם וְחַלְחָלָה֙ בְּכָל־מָתְנַ֔יִם וּפְנֵ֥י כֻלָּ֖ם קִבְּצ֥וּ פָארֽוּר׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
- She is emptyבּוּקָהbûqâh · emptinessH950
- and voidמְבוּקָהmebûqâh · emptinessH4003
- and wasteבָּלַקbâlaq · to wasteH1110
- and the heartלֵבlêb · heartH3820
- meltethמָסַסmâsas · to meltH4549
- and the kneesבֶּ֫רֶךְberek · kneeH1290
- smite togetherפִּיקpîyq · totteringH6375
- and much painחַלְחָלָהchalchâlâh · anguishH2479
- in all loinsמׇתְנַ֫יִםmôthen · loinH4975
- and the facesפָּנֶהpânîym · face ofH6440
- of them all gatherקָבַץqâbats · to gatherH6908
- blacknessפָּארוּרpâ'rûr · glowH6289
Cross-references for Nahum 2:10
- Nahum 3:7Everyone who sees you will turn away from you in disgust; they will say, ‘Nineveh has been devastated! Who will lament for her?’ There will be no one to comfort you!”
- Genesis 1:2Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water.
- Isaiah 13:19Babylon, the most admired of kingdoms, the Chaldeans’ source of honor and pride, will be destroyed by God just as Sodom and Gomorrah were.
- Isaiah 14:23“I will turn her into a place that is overrun with wild animals and covered with pools of stagnant water. I will get rid of her, just as one sweeps away dirt with a broom,” says the Lord who commands armies.
- Isaiah 24:1Look, the Lord is ready to devastate the earth and leave it in ruins; he will mar its surface and scatter its inhabitants.
- Isaiah 34:10Night and day it will burn; its smoke will ascend continually. Generation after generation it will be a wasteland and no one will ever pass through it again.
- Jeremiah 4:23“I looked at the land and saw that it was an empty wasteland. I looked up at the sky, and its light had vanished.
- Jeremiah 51:62Then say, ‘O Lord, you have announced that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals live in it any longer. Certainly it will lie desolate forever!’
- Zephaniah 2:13The Lord will attack the north and destroy Assyria. He will make Nineveh a heap of ruins; it will be as barren as the desert.
- Zephaniah 3:6“I destroyed nations; their walled cities are in ruins. I turned their streets into ruins; no one passes through them. Their cities are desolate; no one lives there.
- Revelation 18:21Then one powerful angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone, threw it into the sea, and said, “With this kind of sudden violent force Babylon the great city will be thrown down and it will never be found again!
- Joshua 2:11When we heard the news we lost our courage and no one could even breathe for fear of you. For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below!
- Psalms 22:14My strength drains away like water; all my bones are dislocated; my heart is like wax; it melts away inside me.
- Isaiah 13:7For this reason all hands hang limp, every human heart loses its courage.
- Daniel 5:6Then all the color drained from the king’s face and he became alarmed. The joints of his hips gave way, and his knees began knocking together.
- Isaiah 21:3For this reason my stomach churns; cramps overwhelm me like the contractions of a woman in labor. I am disturbed by what I hear, horrified by what I see.
Commentaries on Nahum 2:10
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 10She is empty, and void, and waste - The original is strongly emphatic; the words are of the same sound; and increase in their length as they point out great, greater, and greatest desolation. ומבלקה ומבוקה בוקה Bukah, umebukah, umebullakah . She is void, empty, and desolate. The faces of them all gather blackness - This marks the diseased state into which the people had been brought by reason of famine, etc.; for, as Mr. Ward justly remarks, "sickness…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 10She is empty and void and waste - The completeness of her judgment is declared first under that solemn number, Three, and the three words in Hebrew are nearly the same, with the same meaning, only each word fuller than the former, as picturing a growing desolation; and then under four heads (in all seven) also a growing fear. First the heart, the seat of courage and resolve and high purpose, melteth; then the knees smite together, tremble, shake, under…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 10emptied … desolate … laid waste: The Hebrew words here use alliteration (repeating similar sounds) to create a strong effect: buqah umbuqah umbullaqah. This sound pattern emphasizes how complete the destruction was. A similar effect in English would be “devastated, despoiled, and destroyed.”Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1010. Literally, "emptiness, and emptiedness, and devastation." The accumulation of substantives without a verb (as in Na 3:2), the two first of the three being derivatives of the same root, and like in sound, and the number of syllables in them increasing in a kind of climax, intensify the gloomy effectiveness of the expression. Hebrew, Bukah, Mebukah, Mebullakah (compare Is 24:1, 3, 4; Zep 1:15). faces of all gather blackness--(See on Joe 2:6). Calvin…Read the comment
Topics related to Nahum 2:10
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Nahum 2
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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