Nahum 2:4

Amplified Bible

The chariots race madly in the streets; They rush wildly in the broad plazas. Their appearance is like torches; They rush in various directions like forked lightning.

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
The chariots dash madly through the streets;they rush around in the plazas.They look like torches;they dart back and forth like lightning.

Hebrew Names Version
The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and forth in the broad ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the lightnings.

King James Version (1611)
The charets shall rage in the streets, they shall iustle one against another in the broad wayes: they shall seeme like torches, they shall runne like the lightnings.

King James Version
The 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.

English Standard Version
The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches; they dart like lightning.

New American Standard Bible
The chariots drive wildly in the streets, They rush around in the public squares; Their appearance is like torches, They drive back and forth like lightning flashes.

New Century Version
The chariots race through the streets and rush back and forth through the city squares. They look like torches; they run like lightning.

Geneva Bible (1587)
The charets shall rage in the streetes: they shall runne to and fro in the hie wayes: they shall seeme like lampes: they shall shoote like the lightning.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
The chariots race madly in the streets, They rush wildly in the squares, Their appearance is like torches, They dash to and fro like lightning flashes.

Legacy Standard Bible
The chariots race madly in the streets;They rush wildly in the squares;Their appearance is like torches;They dash to and fro like lightning flashes.

Berean Standard Bible
The chariots dash through the streets; they rush around the plazas, appearing like torches, darting about like lightning.

Contemporary English Version
Their horses prance, and their armored chariots dart around like lightning or flaming torches.

Complete Jewish Bible
The shields of [Ninveh's] warriors are [dyed] red; the soldiers are wearing scarlet. The steel of the chariots flashes like fire as they prepare for battle. The cypress [spears] are poisoned.

Darby Translation
The chariots rush madly in the streets, they justle one against another in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like torches, they run like lightnings.

Easy-to-Read Version
The chariots race wildly through the streets and rush back and forth through the square. They look like burning torches, like lightning flashing from place to place!

George Lamsa Translation
In the streets they sing praises and glory in their chariots, their appearance is like torches; they run like lightning.

Good News Translation
Chariots dash wildly through the streets, rushing back and forth in the city squares. They flash like torches and dart about like lightning.

Lexham English Bible
The chariots race madly through the streets; they rush back and forth in the public squares. Their appearance like lightning bolts, they dart about like flashes of lightning.

Literal Translation
The chariots run madly in the streets; they shall rush to and fro in the plazas. Their appearance is like torches; they dart about like the lightnings.

American Standard Version
The chariots rage in the streets; they rush to and fro in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like torches; they run like the lightnings.

Bible in Basic English
The war-carriages are rushing through the streets, pushing against one another in the wide ways, looking like burning lights, running like thunder-flames.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet; the chariots are fire of steel in the day of his preparation, and the cypress spears are made to quiver.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
The charrets shal rage in the streetes, they shall make a terrible noyse in the broade wayes, to loke to like [flaming] cressets, shooting as lightning.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
in the ways, and the chariots shall clash together, and shall be entangled in each other in the broad ways: their appearance is as lamps of fire, and as gleaming lightnings.

English Revised Version
The chariots rage in the streets, they justle one against another in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like torches, they run like the lightnings.

World English Bible
The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and forth in the broad ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the lightnings.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
In weies thei ben troblid togidere, cartis of foure horsis ben hurtlid togidere in stretis; the siyte of hem as laumpis, as leitis rennynge aboute.

Update Bible Version
The chariots rage in the streets; they rush to and fro in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like torches; they run like the lightnings.

Webster's Bible Translation
The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.

New English Translation
The chariots race madly through the streets, they rush back and forth in the broad plazas; they look like lightning bolts, they dash here and there like flashes of lightning.

New King James Version
The chariots rage in the streets, They jostle one another in the broad roads; They seem like torches, They run like lightning.

New Living Translation
The chariots race recklessly along the streets and rush wildly through the squares. They flash like firelight and move as swiftly as lightning.

New Life Bible
The war-wagons race in the streets. They rush through the city. They look like fire and move like lightning.

New Revised Standard
The chariots race madly through the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; their appearance is like torches, they dart like lightning.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
In the streets, madly go the chariots, they rush along in the broadways, - their appearance, is like torches, as lightnings, hither and thither do they run.

Douay-Rheims Bible
They are in confusion in the ways, the chariots jostle one against another in the streets: their looks are like torches, like lightning running to and fro.

Revised Standard Version
The chariots rage in the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; they gleam like torches, they dart like lightning.

Young's Literal Translation
In out-places shine do the chariots, They go to and fro in broad places, Their appearances [are] like torches, As lightnings they run.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
The charettes rolle vpon the stretes, & welter in the hye wayes. They are to loke vpon like cressettes of fyre, and go swyftly, as the lightenynge.

Contextual Overview

¹The one who scatters has come up against you [Nineveh]. Man the fortress and ramparts, watch the road; Strengthen your back [prepare for battle], summon all your strength. ²For the LORD will restore the splendor and majesty of Jacob Like the splendor of [ancient and united] Israel, Even though destroyers have destroyed them And ruined their vine branches. ³The shields of his soldiers [of Media and Babylon] are colored red; The warriors are dressed in scarlet. The chariots blaze with fire of [flashing] steel When he is prepared to march, And the cypress spears are brandished [for battle]. ⁴The chariots race madly in the streets; They rush wildly in the broad plazas. Their appearance is like torches; They rush in various directions like forked lightning.⁵He remembers and summons his nobles; They stumble in their march [terrified because of the attack]. They hurry to the city wall, And the mantelet is prepared and firmly set up. ⁶The gates of the rivers [surrounding Nineveh] are opened And the palace [of sun-dried brick] is dissolved [by the torrents]. ⁷It is decreed: Nineveh is stripped, and she is carried away, And her handmaids are moaning like the sound of doves, Beating on their breasts [in sorrow]. ⁸Though Nineveh was like a pool of water throughout her days, Now her inhabitants are fleeing; "Stop! Stop!" [a few cry,] But no one turns back. ⁹Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! For there is no end to the treasure— Wealth from every precious object. ¹⁰She is emptied! She is desolate and waste! Hearts melting [in fear] and knees knocking! Anguish is in the whole body, And the faces of all grow pale!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

chariots: Nahum 3:2, Nahum 3:3, Isaiah 37:24, Isaiah 66:15, Jeremiah 4:13, Ezekiel 26:10, Daniel 11:40

they shall seem: Heb. their show

Reciprocal: Isaiah 5:28 - their horses' Jeremiah 46:9 - rage Jeremiah 47:3 - the noise Ezekiel 23:24 - with chariots Ezekiel 26:7 - with horses Joel 2:5 - the noise Revelation 9:9 - and the

Cross-References

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning God (Elohim) created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:4
God saw that the light was good (pleasing, useful) and He affirmed and sustained it; and God separated the light [distinguishing it] from the darkness.

Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them [granting them certain authority] and said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subjugate it [putting it under your power]; and rule over (dominate) the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves upon the earth."

Genesis 1:31
God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good and He validated it completely. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day.

Genesis 2:1
So the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts (inhabitants).

Genesis 2:2
And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

Genesis 5:1
This is the book (the written record, the history) of the generations of [the descendants of] Adam. When God created man, He made him in the likeness of God [not physical, but a spiritual personality and moral likeness].

Genesis 10:1
These are the records of the generations (descendants) of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah; and the sons born to them after the flood:

Genesis 11:10
These are the records of the generations of Shem [from whom Abraham descended]. Shem was a hundred years old when he became the father of Arpachshad, two years after the flood.

Genesis 25:12
Now these are the records of the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bore to Abraham;

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The chariots shall rage in the streets,.... In the streets of Nineveh when taken; where they shall be drove in a furious manner from place to place, the men in them breathing out slaughter and death wherever they came. Kimchi understands this of the chariots of the Ninevites; who shall drive about in them in the streets of the city like madmen; not daring to go out to fight the enemy, being mightier and more numerous than they.

They shall justle one against another in the broad ways; because of their numbers, and the haste they shall make to spoil and plunder the city; or the Ninevites shall justle one against another, in their hurry and confusion to make their escape.

They shall seem like torches; either the chariots of the Medes and Chaldeans, for the reasons given in the preceding verse Nahum 2:3; or they themselves, because of their fierceness and cruelty; or the faces of the Ninevites, being covered with shame, so Kimchi; see

Isaiah 13:8.

They shall run like the lightnings; exceeding swiftly, with irresistible force and power; the above writer interprets this of the Ninevites also, running from one end of their city to the other in the utmost confusion, not knowing what to do; but the whole of these two verses Nahum 2:3 seem to be a description of their enemies.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Army is arrayed against army; the armies, thus far, of God against the army of His enemy; all without is order; all within, confusion. The assailing army, from its compactness and unity, is spoken of, both as many and one. The might is of many; the order and singleness of purpose is as of one. The shield, collectively, not shields. “His mighty men;” He, who was last spoken of, was Almighty God, as He says in Isaiah; “I have commanded My consecrated ones; I have also called My mighty ones, them that rejoice in My highness” Isaiah 13:3.

Is reddened - Either with blood of the Assyrians, shed in some previous battle, before the siege began, or (which is the meaning of the word elsewhere ), an artificial color, the color of blood being chosen, as expressive of fiery fierceness. The valiant men are in scarlet, for beauty and terror, as, again being the color of blood . It was especially the color of the dress of their nobles one chief color of the Median dress, from whom the Persians adopted their’s . “The chariots shall be with flaming torches,” literally, “with the fire of steels , or of sharp incisive instruments. Either way the words seem to indicate that the chariots were in some way armed with steel. For steel was not an ornament, nor do the chariots appear to have been ornamented with metal. Iron would have hindered the primary object of lightness and speed. Steel, as distinct from iron, is made only for incisiveness. In either way, it is probable, that scythed chariots were already in use. Against such generals, as the younger Cyrus and Alexander , they were of no avail; but they must have been terrific instruments against undisciplined armies.

The rush and noise of the British chariots disturbed for a time even Caesar’s Roman troops . They were probably in use long before . Their use among the ancient Britons , Gauls and Belgians , as also probably among the Canaanites , evinces that they existed among very rude people.

The objection that the Assyrian chariots are not represented in the monuments as armed with scythes is an oversight, since these spoken of by Nahum may have been Median, certainly were not Assyrian. “In the day of His preparation” , when He musters the hosts for the battle; “and the fir-trees shall be terribly shaken;” i. e., fir-spears (the weapon being often named from the wood of which it is made) shall be made to quiver through the force wherewith they shall be hurled.

The chariots shall rage - (Or madden , as the driving of Jehu is said to be “furiously,” literally, in madness) “in the streets.” The city is not yet taken; so, since this takes place “in the streets and broad ways,” they are the confused preparations of the besieged. “They shall justle one against another,” shall run rapidly to and fro, restlessly; “their show (English margin) is like torches,” leaving streaks of fire, as they pass rapidly along. “They shall run” vehemently, “like the lightnings,” swift; but vanishing.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 4. The chariots shall rage — Those of the besiegers and the besieged, meeting in the streets, producing universal confusion and carnage.