The Assault Begins
1 He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your power mightily! 2 For Yahweh restores the excellency of Jacob as the excellency of Israel, for the destroyers have destroyed them and ruined their vine branches. 3 The shield of his mighty men is made red. The valiant men are in scarlet. The chariots flash with steel in the day of his preparation, and the pine spears are brandished. 4 The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and forth in the wide ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the lightnings. 5 He summons his picked troops. They stumble on their way. They dash to its wall, and the protective shield is put in place.
The poetry turns to reportage: the attacker arrives, and the defenders' frantic preparations are described as already futile.
The mode changes completely. Chapter 1 was theology; chapter 2 is a camera. He who dashes in pieces has come up against you, and four clipped orders follow: keep the fortress, watch the way, strengthen your waist, fortify your power. They are shouted to defenders, and chapter 1 has already said how they end.
Verse 2 gives the reason underneath the noise, and it is not Assyrian politics. Yahweh restores the excellency of Jacob; an empire falling to a coalition is a restoration seen from the other side. Then the attackers arrive in color and motion — shields dyed red, warriors in scarlet, chariots raging in the streets and running like lightning. Verse 5 shows the defense stumbling toward the wall, the first sign that verse 1's orders came too late.
settled What this mark means