What Does Nahum 2:11 Mean in the King James?
Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feedingplace of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The question turns power’s signs, home, free movement, and fearlessness, into evidence that even dominance can disappear.
THE MEANING
The question points to the signs of security: a home, a feeding place, free movement, and no force able to make the lions tremble. It speaks to the reader wherever strength and abundance seem permanent: they do not make a dwelling untouchable.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A secure home, steady provision, and the power to frighten others make me invulnerable.
THE ROOT
מַחֲרִיד
maḥărîd
GROWS FROM
חָרַד
ḥ-r-d
To tremble or quake; in this form, to cause someone to tremble.
“made them afraid” in this verse is maḥărîd. The phrase pictures fear as a bodily shaking caused by something outside the lions. Their former security is so complete that nothing makes them tremble.
ALSO GROWS
ḥārad: To tremble or quake.
חָרַד
The root names the bodily response that the verse says nothing can provoke.
ḥărādāh: Trembling, terror.
חֲרָדָה
This noun makes the same root’s link between fear and shaking explicit.
הָלַךְ
hālak
GROWS FROM
הָלַךְ
h-l-k
To walk or go.
“walked” in this verse is hālak. The lion’s power appears in ordinary movement: it walks through its domain, while nothing makes it tremble. The verse joins unimpeded movement with fearlessness, then asks where that whole domain is.
ALSO GROWS
hōlēkh: One who walks or goes.
הוֹלֵךְ
This participle keeps the root’s focus on a being in motion, as the lion is in the verse.
halikhāh: Walking, going.
הֲלִיכָה
This noun shows how the root can name the movement itself, not merely a destination.
THE PATTERN
A place of apparent power and security can be emptied, and strength does not guarantee permanence.
The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion’s whelps are scattered abroad.Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found.He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.THE THREAD
The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, and the stout lion’s whelps are scattered abroad.Job uses the same Hebrew word לָבִיא (lāvîʾ, lion or lioness) found in Nahum’s lion den. It fills in what Nahum’s question leaves open: the old lion perishes for lack of prey, and its young are scattered.
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