Nahum 2:2

Nahum 1:12 f., Nahum 1:15; Nahum 2:2. Comfort for Judah. Now that the days of Yahweh's contention with His people are over, He will afflict them no more, but will break the yoke of the enemy from off their shoulders, and will burst their bonds asunder. Already their eyes may behold on the mountain-tops the feet of the herald bringing tidings of salvation. Let Judah then celebrate her feasts and fulfil her vows in confidence; for no more shall Belial pass through her midst, but Yahweh will restore the vine-tree which the spoilers have despoiled and whose branches they have ruined.

Nahum 1:12. Here, too, the text is almost desperately corrupt. A plausible emendation yields, Now that the days of my contention are full, they are past and gone; if I have afflicted (humbled) thee, etc.

Nahum 1:15. Belial (mg.): the personification of wickedness (Deuteronomy 13:3 * Psalms 61:2 *).

Nahum 2:2. For g e on, pride, the context practically demands gephen, vine (cf. Psalms 80:8 ff.). Jacob here = Judah, and Israel = the north land (cf. Isaiah 43:1; Isaiah 44:1, etc.).