Nahum 2:10

10 It is destroyed, and cut, and rent, (or torn), and heart failing, and unknitting of small knees, and failing in all reins; and the face of all be as (the) blackness of a pot.

Nahum 2:10 Meaning and Commentary

Nahum 2:10

She is empty, and void, and waste
The city of Nineveh, empty of inhabitants, being killed, or having fled; and stripped of all its treasures and riches by the enemies; its walls and houses demolished and pulled down, and laid in ruins, and become a heap of rubbish; (See Gill on Nahum 1:8). Various words are here used to ascertain and confirm the thing; and there is an elegant play on words or likeness of sounds, which our language will not express: and the heart melteth;
the heart of every inhabitant of Nineveh melted with fear at the approach of their enemies, their entrance into the city, and plunder of it; flowed like water, or melted like wax; see ( Psalms 22:14 ) : and the knees smite together;
like people in a fright, and when a panic has seized them; and as it was with Belshazzar, ( Daniel 5:6 ) : and much pain [is] in all loins;
like that of women in travail; or of persons in a sudden fright, which gives them a pain in their backs at once: and the faces of them all gather blackness;
like a pot, as the Targum adds; being in great distress and disconsolation, which make men appear in a dismal hue, and their countenances look very dark and gloomy; see ( Joel 2:6 ) .

Nahum 2:10 In-Context

8 And Nineveh, as a cistern of waters the waters thereof; forsooth they fled; Stand ye, stand ye, (they cried,) and there is not that shall turn again. (And so Nineveh was made like a water cistern, yea, like its water, as it fled away; Stand ye! stand ye in your place! they cried; but there was no one who turned back.)

9 Ravish ye silver, ravish ye gold; and there is none end of riches, of all desirable vessels. (Steal ye the silver, rob ye the gold; yea, there is no end of the riches, of all their desirable vessels.)

10 It is destroyed, and cut, and rent, (or torn), and heart failing, and unknitting of small knees, and failing in all reins; and the face of all be as (the) blackness of a pot.

11 Where is the dwelling of lions, and [the] pastures of whelps of lions? To which city the lion went, that the whelp of the lion should enter thither, and there is not that shall make afeared. (Where now is the lions? den, and the pastures of the lion's cubs? To which city the lion went in first, so that the lion's cubs could enter in there afterward, and there would be no one who would make them afraid.)

12 The lion took enough to his whelps, and slew to his lionesses; and filled their dens with prey, and his couch with raven. (The lion took enough for his cubs, and killed prey for his lionesses; yea, he filled their dens with prey, and his lair with spoils.)