2:1 A shatterer [Nineveh (נינוה)'s enemy] is come up before Thy face: guard thy fortress, watch the way, make [Thy] loins strong, fortify [Thy] power mightily.
2:2 For YHWH (יהוה) hath turned away the splendor of Yaakov, as the splendor of Yisrael: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.
2:3 The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men [are] in scarlet: the chariots [shall be] with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken.
2:4 The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.
2:5 He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared.
2:6 The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.
2:7And the queen is uncovered, she is carried away, and her handmaids moan as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.
2:8 But Nineveh (נינוה) hath been from of old like a pool of water; yet they flee away; 'Stand, stand'; but none looketh back.
2:9 Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for [there is] none end of the store [and] rich with all precious vessels.
2:10 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.
2:11 Where is the den of the lions, which was the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?
2:12 The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.
HaShem's Determination to destroy the city
2:13 Hinnei, I [am] against thee, saith YHWH Tzva'ot, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions: and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no more be heard.