Bible Strands
Nahum 2:10
She is emptied! Yes, she is desolate and laid waste! Hearts melt, knees knock, bodies tremble, and every face grows pale!
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Nahum addresses the city of Nineveh, describing its sudden collapse immediately following the command to plunder its treasure in the preceding verse.
The words — The Hebrew בּוּקָ֥ה (bu.Kah) conveys a state of emptiness, paired with וּמְבֻלָּקָ֑ה (u./me.vu.la.Kah) to denote complete devastation.
The thread — The physical reactions of melting hearts, tottering knees, and pale faces recur in Psalms 22:14, Daniel 5:6, and Joel 2:6.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that divine judgment produces immediate, visceral terror and total ruin for the targeted nation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Psalms 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.
- Daniel 5:6 his face grew pale and his thoughts so alarmed him that his hips gave way and his knees knocked together.
- Joel 2:6 Nations writhe in horror before them; every face turns pale.
- Isaiah 13:7 Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.
- Jeremiah 30:6 Ask now, and see: Can a male give birth? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor and every face turned pale?
- Isaiah 21:3 Therefore my body is filled with anguish. Pain grips me, like the pains of a woman in labor. I am bewildered to hear, I am dismayed to see.
- Isaiah 24:1 Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—
- Zephaniah 2:13 And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria; He will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as a desert.
- Joshua 2:11 When we heard this, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.
- Isaiah 13:19 And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.