---
title: "Nahum 2 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/nahum/2/
description: "God sends his armies against Ninive to destroy it. Nahum 2 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Nahum 2

Nahum 2 is chapter 2 of 3 in the Book of Nahum. Here are all 13 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> God sends his armies against Ninive to destroy it.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Nahum 2 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. He ascends, who would scatter before your eyes, who would maintain the blockade. Contemplate the way, fortify your back, reinforce virtue greatly.
2. For the Lord has repaid the arrogance of Jacob, just like the arrogance of Israel. For the despoilers have scattered them, and they have corrupted their procreation.
3. The shield of his strong ones is fire, the men of war are in scarlet. The reins of the chariot are fiery in the day of his preparation, and the drivers have been drugged.
4. They have become confused on their journey. The four-horse chariots have collided in the streets. Their appearance is like torches, like lightning dashing around.
5. He will call to mind his strong ones; they will destroy along their journey. They will quickly ascend its walls, and a shelter will be prepared.
6. The gates of the rivers have been opened, and the temple has been pulled down to the ground.
7. And the foot soldier has been led away captive, and her handmaids were driven away, mourning like doves, murmuring in their hearts.
8. And Nineveh, her waters are like a fish pond. Yet truly, they have fled away: “Stand, stand!” But there is no one who will turn back.
9. Despoil the silver, despoil the gold. And there is no end to all the riches of desirable equipment.
10. She has been scattered, and cut, and torn apart. And the heart melts, and the knees buckle, and weakness is in every temperament. And the faces of them all are like a black kettle.
11. Where is the dwelling place of the lions, and the feeding ground of the young lions, to which the lion went, so as to open a way for the young lion, and so that there would be none to make them afraid?
12. The lion seized enough for his young, and killed enough for his lionesses, and he filled his caves with prey, and his den with spoils.
13. Behold, I will come to you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots even to smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. And I will exterminate your prey from the land, and the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.

## Nahum 2 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Ascendit qui dispergat coram te, qui custodiat obsidionem: contemplare viam, conforta lumbos, robora virtutem valde.
2. Quia reddidit Dominus superbiam Jacob, sicut superbiam Israël; quia vastatores dissipaverunt eos, et propagines eorum corruperunt.
3. Clypeus fortium ejus ignitus, viri exercitus in coccineis; igneæ habenæ currus in die præparationis ejus, et agitatores consopiti sunt.
4. In itineribus conturbati sunt; quadrigæ collisæ sunt in plateis: aspectus eorum quasi lampades, quasi fulgura discurrentia.
5. Recordabitur fortium suorum; ruent in itineribus suis: velociter ascendent muros ejus, et præparabitur umbraculum.
6. Portæ fluviorum apertæ sunt, et templum ad solum dirutum.
7. Et miles captivus abductus est, et ancillæ ejus minabantur gementes ut columbæ, murmurantes in cordibus suis.
8. Et Ninive quasi piscina aquarum aquæ ejus; ipsi vero fugerunt. State, state! et non est qui revertatur.
9. Diripite argentum, diripite aurum: et non est finis divitiarum ex omnibus vasis desiderabilibus.
10. Dissipata est, et scissa, et dilacerata; et cor tabescens, et dissolutio geniculorum, et defectio in cunctis renibus, et facies omnium eorum sicut nigredo ollæ.
11. Ubi est habitaculum leonum, et pascua catulorum leonum, ad quam ivit leo ut ingrederetur illuc catulus leonis, et non est qui exterreat?
12. Leo cepit sufficienter catulis suis, et necavit leænis suis, et implevit præda speluncas suas, et cubile suum rapina.
13. Ecce ego ad te, dicit Dominus exercituum, et succendam usque ad fumum quadrigas tuas, et leunculos tuos comedet gladius, et exterminabo de terra prædam tuam, et non audietur ultra vox nuntiorum tuorum.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 2: He hath punished Jacob for his pride; and therefore Ninive must not expect to escape. Or else, rendering the pride of Jacob means rewarding, that is, punishing Ninive for the pride they exercised against Jacob.
- Verse 3: He speaks of the Chaldeans and Medes sent to destroy Ninive.-- Ibid.
- Verse 3: consopiti. That is, they drive on furiously like men intoxicated with wine.
- Verse 5: By running hastily on.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Fri, Aug 11, 2028 (computed): St. Clare, Virgin — First Reading, Nahum 2:1, 3; 3:1-3, 6-7

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).