Nahum 2:13

"Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah 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."

The dilemma of Assyria's destruction is evident in this extended figure of the lion's dens.

"How is it that with the strength and devastating power of a lion with a den unmolested and uncontested, with mate and offspring, and with unlimited prey to seize with impunity, the lair is utterly abandoned?"[24]

The enigma is answered in the first clause, one of the most important in the prophecy and the one repeated in Nahum 3:5, "I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts!"

This verse identifies the Dasher in pieces of Nahum 2:1; it is God who overthrew Nineveh. He had instruments of course, but the decision for the execution of wrath upon that bloody city was not made in the counsels of men, but at the throne of God.

"I will burn ... I will cut off ..." "Of all the empires, Nineveh was the one most unashamedly founded upon force and cruelty."[25] How appropriate, therefore, was the execution of the wrath of God upon them. Thus is concluded this second chapter which forms a unit prophesying Nineveh's destruction. The whole story is in this chapter; but Nahum proceeded then to emphasis it with another similar announcement of the true word of Jehovah, providing something of a recapitulation with the addition, of other significant and pertinent details in the final chapter.