 |
Nahum 1
The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2 Yahweh is a jealous El and avenges; Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath; Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserves wrath for his enemies. 3 Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty: Yahweh has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4 He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers: Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes. 5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt; and the earth is upheaved at his presence, yes, the world, and all that dwell in it. 6 Who can stand before his indignation? And who can remain in the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken down by him. 7 Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows them that take refuge in him. 8 But with an overrunning flood he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
9 What do you devise against Yahweh? He will make a full end; affliction shall not rise up the second time. 10 For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly as dry stubble. 11 There has one gone forth out of you, that devises evil against Yahweh, that counsels wickedness. 12 In this manner says Yahweh: Though they are in full strength, and likewise many, even so shall they be cut down, and he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. 13 And now will I break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds apart.
14 And Yahweh has given commandment concerning you, that no more of your name be sown: out of the house of your elohim will I cut off the graven image and the molten image; I will make your grave; for you are vile.
15 Behold, upon the mountains the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace! Keep your feasts, O Judah, perform your vows; for the wicked one shall no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off.
Nahum 2
He that dashes in pieces has come up against you: keep the fortress, watch the way, make your loins strong, fortify your power mightily. 2 For Yahweh restores the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, and destroyed 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 cypress spears are brandished. 4 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. 5 He remembers his nobles: they stumble in their march; they make haste to the wall of it, and the mantelet is prepared. 6 The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved. 7 And it is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her handmaids moan as with the voice of doves, beating upon their breasts.
8 But Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water: yet they flee away. Stand, stand, they cry; but no one looks back. 9 Take the spoil of silver, take the plunder of gold; for there is no end of the store, the glory of all good furniture. 10 She is empty, and void, and waste; and the heart melts, and the knees knock together, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of them all have become pale. 11 Where is the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid? 12 The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with ravin. 13 Behold, I am against you, says Yahweh of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; and I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no more be heard.
Nahum 3
Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and rapine; the prey departs not. 2 The noise of the whip, and the noise of the rattling of wheels, and prancing horses, and bounding chariots, 3 the horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, and the glittering spear, and a multitude of slain, and great heap of corpses, and there is no end of the bodies; they stumble upon their bodies; 4 because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that sells nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. 5 Behold, I am against you, says Yahweh of hosts, and I will uncover your skirts upon your face; and I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame. 6 And I will cast abominable filth upon you, and make you vile, and will set you as a gazing-stock. 7 And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon you shall flee from you, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8 Are you better than No-amon, that was situated among the rivers, that had the waters all around her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea? 9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were your helpers. 10 yet 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. 11 You also shall be drunken; you shall be hid; you also shall seek a stronghold because of the enemy. 12 All your fortresses shall be like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they be shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. 13 Behold, your people in the middle of you are women; the gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies: the fire has devoured your bars. 14 Draw water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses; go into the clay, and tread the mortar; make strong the brick kiln. 15 There shall the fire devour you; the sword shall cut you off; it shall devour you like the canker-worm: make yourself many as the canker-worm; make yourself many as the locust. 16 You have multiplied your merchants above the stars of heaven: the canker-worm ravages, and flees away. 17 Your princes are as the locusts, and your marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers, which encamp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun arises they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. 18 Your shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; your nobles are at rest; your people are scattered upon the mountains, and there is no one to gather them. 19 There is no healing of your hurt; your wound is grievous: all that hear the report of you clap their hands over you; for upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?
