Bible Strands
Nahum 2:13
“Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will reduce your chariots to cinders, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD of Hosts speaks directly against a predatory city that has filled its dens with spoils and prey. This declaration follows the description of the city's violent accumulation of wealth and victims in Nahum 2:12.
The words — The Hebrew הִנְנִי (hinnî) and אֵלַיִךְ ('elayîḵ) literally render "Behold, I am against you," establishing a direct divine confrontation. This phrasing frames the subsequent judgment as an active, targeted intervention rather than a distant decree.
The thread — This declaration of divine opposition recurs in Psalms 46:9, where God breaks weapons and burns shields in fire. It echoes in Jeremiah 21:13 against a city dwelling on a plateau, and reappears in Nahum 3:5 with parallel language of exposure and judgment.
Why it lands — The text states that chariots will be consumed by fire, predatory violence will be destroyed, and the city's authority will fall silent. It demands recognition that accumulated power and cruelty are subject to direct divine dismantling.
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
Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.
Cross-references
- Psalms 46:9 He makes wars to cease throughout the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; He burns the shields in the fire.
- Jeremiah 21:13 Behold, I am against you who dwell above the valley, atop the rocky plateau—declares the LORD—you who say, “Who can come against us? Who can enter our dwellings?”
- Nahum 3:5 “Behold, I am against you,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show your nakedness to the nations and your shame to the kingdoms.
- 2 Kings 19:23 Through your servants you have taunted the Lord, and you have said: “With my many chariots I have ascended to the heights of the mountains, to the remote peaks of Lebanon. I have cut down its tallest cedars, the finest of its cypresses. I have reached its farthest outposts, the densest of its forests.
- Joshua 11:9 Joshua treated them as the LORD had told him; he hamstrung their horses and burned up their chariots.
- 2 Kings 19:9 Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: “Look, he has set out to fight against you.” So Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
- Isaiah 49:24 Can the plunder be snatched from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be delivered?
- Ezekiel 5:8 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.
- Nahum 3:1 Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without prey.
- 2 Kings 18:17 Nevertheless, the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh, along with a great army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. They advanced up to Jerusalem and stationed themselves by the aqueduct of the upper pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field.