Nahum 2:12
in Nahum 2The lion mauled enough for its cubs and strangled prey for the lioness. It filled its dens with the kill, and its lairs with mauled prey.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with ravin.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Nahum 2
Commentary
6 notes on this verseThe lion did tear - This verse gives us a striking picture of the manner in which the Assyrian conquests and depredations were carried on. How many people were spoiled to enrich his whelps - his sons, princes, and nobles! How many women were stripped and slain, whose spoils went to decorate his lionesses - his queen, concubines, and mistresses. And they had even more than they could assume; their holes and dens - treasure-houses, palaces, and wardrobes - were filled with ravin, the riches which they got by the plunder of towns, families, and individuals.
This site's exposition
the dwelling of the lions
on Nahum 2:11-13
The taunt closes the chapter at the empty den: where is the dwelling of the lions, where the lion walked and none made them afraid? The lion was Assyria's own royal emblem, carved on its palace walls, and the prophet turns the heraldry into an epitaph, the lion that tore for his whelps and filled his holes with prey now hunted out of history, which the bench sets beside the monuments' lion hunts. The last word is not the armies' but the Lord's, behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, the sentence repeated at 3:5: one adversary decided this siege, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard, the empire's dispatches ended.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
): Where is the dwelling of the lions? It is gone; there appear no remnants, no footsteps, of it. Where is the feeding place of the young lions, where they glutted themselves with prey?
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back. 9 Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture. 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.
quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-scripture
In the streets - Of Nineveh, when taken. Justle - By reason of their multitude and fury. In the broad ways - Where is most room, and yet scarce enough for them to move.
The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps,.... The metaphor is still continued; and the kings of Assyria are compared to lions that hunt for their prey, and, having found it, tear it in pieces, and carry home a sufficiency for their whelps.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
Where is the lions’ den? —This is a lamentation over Nineveh, which was the dwellings of kings, hard and strong as lions.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
The grown lion tore enough for his whelps —As Jonathan renders it: The kings would bring much plunder, until there was enough for the members of their households.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
11 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַרְיֵ֤ה | ʾaryeh | [the] lion | H738 → | 80 times |
| טֹרֵף֙ | toref | [was] tearing | H2963 → | |
| בְּדֵ֣י | bedei | for [the] sufficiency of | H1767 → | |
| גֹֽרוֹתָ֔יו | gorotav | cubs its | H1484 → | |
| וּמְחַנֵּ֖ק | umechanek | and [was] strangling | H2614 → | |
| לְלִבְאֹתָ֑יו | lelivotav | for lionesses its | H3833 → | |
| וַיְמַלֵּא־ | vaymale'- | and it filled | H4390 → | |
| טֶ֣רֶף | teref | prey | H2964 → | 22 times |
| חֹרָ֔יו | chorav | hole its | H2356 → | |
| וּמְעֹֽנֹתָ֖יו | umeonotav | and dens its | H4585 → | |
| טְרֵפָֽה׃ | terefah | torn flesh | H2966 → |
אַרְיֵ֤ה[the] lion
ʾaryehH738 →80 times
טֹרֵף֙[was] tearing
torefH2963 →
בְּדֵ֣יfor [the] sufficiency of
bedeiH1767 →
גֹֽרוֹתָ֔יוcubs its
gorotavH1484 →
וּמְחַנֵּ֖קand [was] strangling
umechanekH2614 →
לְלִבְאֹתָ֑יוfor lionesses its
lelivotavH3833 →
וַיְמַלֵּא־and it filled
vaymale'-H4390 →
טֶ֣רֶףprey
terefH2964 →22 times
חֹרָ֔יוhole its
choravH2356 →
וּמְעֹֽנֹתָ֖יוand dens its
umeonotavH4585 →
טְרֵפָֽה׃torn flesh
terefahH2966 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 51:34“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like a monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 50:17
Israel is a scattered flock, chased away by lions. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria; the last to crush his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”
- Jeremiah 51:44
I will punish Bel in Babylon. I will make him spew out what he swallowed. The nations will no longer stream to him; even the wall of Babylon will fall.
- Job 20:15
He swallows wealth but vomits it out; God will force it from his stomach.
- Isaiah 24:1–3
Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—
- Matthew 23:13
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
- Jeremiah 50:17
Through
Psalms 17:12like a lion greedy for prey, like a young lion lurking in ambush.
it leads to
- Psalms 7:2
or they will shred my soul like a lion and tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.
- 1 Peter 5:8
Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
- Psalms 10:9
He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net.
- Psalms 7:2
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Nahum
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.