
Nahum

   {1:1} An oracle about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the
Elkoshite. {1:2} [1>]Yahweh[<1] is a jealous [2>]God[<2] and avenges.
Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his
adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies. {1:3} Yahweh
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. {1:4} He rebukes the
sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes,
and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes. {1:5} The mountains
quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his
presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it. {1:6} Who 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.
{1:7} Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows
those who take refuge in him. {1:8} But with an overflowing flood, he
will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into
darkness. {1:9} What do you plot against Yahweh? He will make a full
end. Affliction won't rise up the second time. {1:10} For entangled
like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly
like dry stubble. {1:11} There is one gone forth out of you, who
devises evil against Yahweh, who counsels wickedness. {1:12} Thus 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. {1:13} Now will I break his yoke from
off you, and will burst your bonds apart." {1:14} Yahweh 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."

   {1:15} Behold, 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.

   {2:1} He who dashes in pieces has come up against you. Keep the
fortress! Watch the way! Strengthen your waist! Fortify your power
mightily! {2:2} For Yahweh restores the excellency of Jacob, as the
excellency of Israel; for the destroyers have destroyed them, and
ruined their vine branches. {2:3} 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. {2:4}
The chariots rage in the streets. They rush back and forth in the broad
ways. Their appearance is like torches. They run like the lightnings.
{2:5} He summons his picked troops. They stumble on their way. They
dash to its wall, and the protective shield is put in place. {2:6} The
gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved. {2:7} It
is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carried away; and her handmaids
moan as with the voice of doves, beating on their breasts. {2:8} But
Nineveh has been from of old like a pool of water, yet they flee away.
"Stop! Stop!" they cry, but no one looks back. {2:9} Take the spoil of
silver. Take the spoil of gold, for there is no end of the store, the
glory of all goodly furniture. {2:10} She is empty, void, and waste.
The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have
grown pale. {2:11} 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
cubs, and no one made them afraid? {2:12} The 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."

   {3:1} Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery.
The prey doesn't depart. {3:2} The noise of the whip, the noise of the
rattling of wheels, prancing horses, and bounding chariots, {3:3} the
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, {3:4} because 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. {3:6} I will throw
abominable filth on you, and make you vile, and will set you a
spectacle. {3:7} It 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?"

   {3:8} Are you better than [3>]No-Amon,[<3] who was situated among
the rivers, who had the waters around her; whose rampart was the sea,
and her wall was of the sea? {3:9} Cush and Egypt were her boundless
strength. Put and Libya were her helpers. {3:10} 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. {3:11} You
also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a
stronghold because of the enemy. {3:12} All your fortresses will be
like fig trees with the first-ripe figs: if they are shaken, they fall
into the mouth of the eater. {3:13} Behold, 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. {3:14} Draw water for the siege.
Strengthen your fortresses. Go into the clay, and tread the mortar.
Make the brick kiln strong. {3:15} There 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. {3:16} You have
increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The
grasshopper strips, and flees away. {3:17} Your 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. {3:18} Your shepherds slumber,
king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down. Your people are scattered on the
mountains, and there is no one to gather them. {3:19} There 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?





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Footnotes:
[1] {1:2} "Yahweh" is God's proper Name, sometimes rendered "LORD" (all
caps) in other translations.

[2] {1:2} The Hebrew word rendered "God" is "Elohim."

[3] {3:8} or, Thebes

