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Chapter 2

At this moment on the mountains
    the footsteps of one bearing good news,
    of one announcing peace!(A)
Celebrate your feasts, Judah,
    fulfill your vows!
For never again will destroyers invade you;[a]
    they are completely cut off.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:1 For never again will destroyers invade you: prophets are not always absolutely accurate in the things they foresee. Nineveh was destroyed, as Nahum expected, but Judah was later invaded by the Babylonians and (much later) by the Romans. The prophets were convinced that Israel held a key place in God’s plan and looked for the people to survive all catastrophes, always blessed by the Lord, though the manner was not always as they expected; the “fallen hut of David” was not rebuilt as Am 9:11 suggests, except in the coming of Jesus, and in a way far different than the prophet expected. Often the prophet speaks in hyperbole, as when Second Isaiah speaks of the restored Jerusalem being built with precious stones (Is 54:12) as a way of indicating a glorious future.

[a]The Lord will restore the vine of Jacob,
    the honor of Israel,
Because ravagers have ravaged them
    and ruined their branches.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:3 This verse does not fit its context well; it may have been the conclusion for the preceding section and have once followed v. 1, or it may be a later scribal addition.

Chapter 3

Ah! The bloody city,
    all lies,
Full of plunder,
    whose looting never stops!(A)
The crack of the whip,
    the rumbling of wheels;
Horses galloping,
    chariots bounding,
Cavalry charging,
    the flash of the sword,
    the gleam of the spear;
A multitude of slain,
    a mass of corpses,
Endless bodies
    to stumble upon!

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I will cast filth upon you,
    disgrace you and make you a spectacle;
Until everyone who sees you
    runs from you saying,
“Nineveh is destroyed;
    who can pity her?
Where can I find
    any to console you?”

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