Judgment · The fall of Nineveh

Nahum 2:1-13

Nahum · ~650 BC · Status: Fulfilled · Confidence: 65%
“He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. For the LORD hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.”
King James Version · the opening — all 13 verses are below

Nahum's vivid oracle of Nineveh's violent fall — the river-gates opened, the palace dissolved, the great Assyrian capital left empty and waste.

Read the whole passage — all 13 verses (KJV)

2:1He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.

2:2For the LORD hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.

2:3The 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.

2:4The 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.

2:5He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared.

2:6The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.

2:7And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.

2:8But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back.

2:9Take 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.

2:10She 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.

2:11Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?

2:12The 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.

2:13Behold, 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.

Fulfillment References

Nahum 3:1-19 Zephaniah 2:13-15 🏛 Historical: 612 BC Jonah 3:1-10

How Traditions Read This Prophecy

Apostolic (Oneness) PentecostalThe one God who once spared repentant Nineveh (Jonah) later judged its returned cruelty — sovereign over both the mercy and the justice of history.
JewishJudgment on Assyria, the empire that destroyed the northern kingdom; the comfort ('Nahum' = comfort) of God's justice for the oppressed.
CatholicThe fall of the violent empire — divine justice on cruelty, fulfilled in history.
ProtestantA strikingly fulfilled prophecy: Nineveh fell in 612 BC, partly via the flooding of the rivers ('gates of the rivers opened'), and was so thoroughly destroyed its very site was later doubted.
OrthodoxGod's judgment on the cruel empire, fulfilled in Nineveh's obliteration.
DispensationalFulfilled history demonstrating the certainty of God's prophetic word.
AcademicThe detail of the 'river gates' opening aligns with later accounts (Diodorus, Xenophon) of flooding in Nineveh's 612 BC fall; the city's disappearance — its location uncertain until Layard's 1840s excavations — is widely cited as remarkable, though the oracle's date relative to the event is debated.
Open the full interactive entry →
Audio narration (listen to this prophecy read aloud), cross-references, Hebrew/Greek, Dead Sea Scrolls notes, a prophetic timeline, network maps, study tools and multi-tradition analysis in the interactive explorer.
Bible Prophecy Explorer · based on J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy catalogue · an openly Apostolic (Oneness) Pentecostal study resource — all traditions presented fairly. Pastor: C. Myles Young, D.Min. · Bishop: Nathaniel J. Wilson, Ed.D.