Nahum
1:1An oracle about Nineveh. The book
of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. 1:2Yahweh is a
jealous God and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes
vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies.
1:3Yahweh is slow to anger, and great
in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Yahweh has his
way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his
feet. 1:4He rebukes the sea, and makes it
dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the
flower of Lebanon languishes. 1:5The mountains quake before him,
and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the
world, and all who dwell in it. 1:6Who can stand before his
indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is
poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him. 1:7Yahweh is good, a stronghold in
the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him. 1:8But with an overflowing flood, he
will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into
darkness. 1:9What do you plot against Yahweh?
He will make a full end. Affliction won't rise up the second time. 1:10For entangled like thorns, and
drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble.
1:11There is one gone forth out of
you, who devises evil against Yahweh, who counsels wickedness. 1:12Thus says Yahweh: "Though
they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so they will be cut
down, and he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict
you no more. 1:13Now will I break his yoke from
off you, and will burst your bonds apart." 1:14Yahweh has
commanded concerning you: "No more descendants will bear your name.
Out of the house of your gods, will I cut off the engraved image and the
molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile."
1:15Behold, on the mountains the feet
of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, Judah!
Perform your vows, for the wicked one will no more pass through you. He is
utterly cut off.
2:1He who dashes in pieces has come
up against you. Keep the fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your loins!
Fortify your power mightily! 2:2For Yahweh restores the excellency
of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the destroyers have destroyed
them, and ruined their vine branches. 2:3The 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. 2:4The chariots rage in the streets.
They rush back and forth in the broad ways. Their appearance is like
torches. They run like the lightnings. 2:5He summons
his picked troops. They stumble on their way. They dash to its wall, and
the protective shield is put in place. 2:6The gates of
the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved. 2:7It is
decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her handmaids moan as
with the voice of doves, beating on their breasts. 2:8But Nineveh
has been from of old like a pool of water, yet they flee away. "Stop!
Stop!" they cry, but no one looks back. 2:9Take the
spoil of silver. Take the spoil of gold, for there is no end of the store,
the glory of all goodly furniture. 2:10She is
empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their
bodies and faces have grown pale. 2:11Where is
the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the
lion and the lioness walked, the lion's cubs, and no one made them afraid?
2:12The lion tore in pieces enough
for his cubs, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with
the kill, and his dens with prey. 2:13"Behold, I am against
you," says Yahweh of Armies, "and I will burn her chariots in
the smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions; and I will cut off
your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will no longer
be heard."
3:1Woe to the bloody city! It is all
full of lies and robbery. The prey doesn't depart. 3:2The noise of
the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, prancing horses, and
bounding chariots, 3:3the horseman mounting, and the
flashing sword, the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and a
great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies. They stumble on
their bodies, 3:4because of the multitude of the
prostitution of the alluring prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft, who
sells nations through her prostitution, and families through her
witchcraft. 3:5"Behold, I am against
you," says Yahweh of Armies, "and I will lift your skirts over
your face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your
shame. 3:6I will throw abominable filth on
you, and make you vile, and will set you a spectacle. 3:7It will
happen that all those who look at you will flee from you, and say,
'Nineveh is laid waste Who will mourn for her?' Where will I seek
comforters for you?"
3:8Are you better than No-Amon, who was situated among the rivers, who had the
waters around her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea?
3:9Cush and Egypt were her boundless
strength. Put and Libya were her helpers. 3:10Yet was she
carried away. She went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed
in pieces at the head of all the streets, and they cast lots for her
honorable men, and all her great men were bound in chains. 3:11You also will be drunken. You
will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy. 3:12All your fortresses will be like
fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall into the
mouth of the eater. 3:13Behold, your troops in your midst
are women. The gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies. The
fire has devoured your bars. 3:14Draw water for the siege.
Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar. Make
the brick kiln strong. 3:15There the fire will devour you.
The sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the grasshopper.
Multiply like grasshoppers. Multiply like the locust. 3:16You have increased your merchants
more than the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips, and flees away.
3:17Your guards are like the locusts,
and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls
on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place
is not known where they are. 3:18Your shepherds slumber, king of
Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the mountains,
and there is no one to gather them. 3:19There is no
healing your wound, for your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of
you clap their hands over you; for who hasn't felt your endless cruelty?
Notes:
[1] back to 3:8
or, Thebes
[Index]
