Chapter
1
The LORD's
Avenging Wrath
1: An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of
the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.
2: A jealous and avenging God is the Lord,
the Lord is avenging and wrathful; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and rages against his enemies.
3: The
Lord is slow to anger but great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear
the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of
his feet.
4: He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,
and he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither, and the bloom of
Lebanon fades.
5: The mountains quake before him, and
the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who live in it.
6: Who can stand before his
indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like
fire, and by him the rocks are broken in pieces.
7: The Lord is good, a stronghold in a day
of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him,
8: even in a rushing flood. He will
make a full end of his adversaries and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
9: Why do you plot against the Lord? He
will make an end; no adversary will rise up twice.
10: Like thorns they are entangled, like
drunkards they are drunk; they are consumed like dry straw.
11: From
you one has gone out who plots evil against the Lord, one who counsels
wickedness.
12: Thus
says the Lord, "Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut off and pass away. Though I
have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.
13: And now I will break off his yoke
from you and snap the bonds that bind you."
14: The Lord has commanded concerning
you: "Your name shall be perpetuated no longer; from the house of your
gods I will cut off the carved image and the cast image. I will make your
grave, for you are worthless."
The Tidings of Nineveh's Fall
15: Look!
On the mountains the feet of one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace!
Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the
wicked invade you; they are utterly cut off.
Chapter
2
1: A shatterer has come up against you. Guard
the ramparts; watch the road; gird your loins; collect all your strength.
2: (For the Lord is restoring the
majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, though ravagers have
ravaged them and ruined their branches.)
3: The shields of his warriors are red;
his soldiers are clothed in crimson. The metal on the chariots flashes on the
day when he musters them; the chargers prance.
4: The chariots race madly through the
streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; their appearance is like
torches, they dart like lightning.
5: He calls his officers; they stumble
as they come forward; they hasten to the wall, and the mantelet is set up.
6: The river gates are opened, the
palace trembles.
7: It is decreed that the city be
exiled, its slave women led away, moaning like doves and beating their breasts.
8: Nineveh is like a pool whose waters
run away. "Halt! Halt!"- but no one turns back.
9: "Plunder the silver, plunder
the gold! There is no end of treasure! An abundance of every precious
thing!"
10: Devastation, desolation, and
destruction! Hearts faint and knees tremble, all loins quake, all faces grow
pale!
11: What became of the lions' den, the
cave of the young lions, where the lion goes, and the lion's cubs, with no one
to disturb them?
12: The lion has torn enough
for his whelps and strangled prey for his lionesses; he has filled his caves
with prey and his dens with torn flesh.
The Utter Ruin of Nineveh
13: See, I am against you, says the Lord
of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour
your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of
your messengers shall be heard no more.
Chapter
3
1: Ah! City of bloodshed, utterly deceitful,
full of booty- no end to the plunder!
2: The crack of whip and rumble of
wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot!
3: Horsemen charging, flashing sword
and glittering spear, piles of dead, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end-
they stumble over the bodies!
4: Because of the countless
debaucheries of the prostitute, gracefully alluring, mistress of sorcery, who
enslaves nations through her debaucheries, and peoples through her sorcery,
5: am against you, says the Lord of
hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will let nations look
on your nakedness and kingdoms on your shame.
6: I will throw filth at you and treat
you with contempt, and make you a spectacle.
7: Then all who see you will shrink
from you and say, "Nineveh is devastated; who will bemoan her?" Where
shall I seek comforters for you?
8: Are you better than Thebes that sat
by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, water her wall?
9: Ethiopia was her strength, Egypt
too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her helpers.
10: Yet she became an exile, she went
into captivity; even her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every
street; lots were cast for her nobles, all her dignitaries were bound in
fetters.
11: You also will be drunken, you will
go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12: All your fortresses are like fig
trees with first-ripe figs- if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.
13: Look at your troops: they are women
in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your foes; fire has
devoured the bars of your gates.
14: Draw water for the siege, strengthen
your forts; trample the clay, tread the mortar, take hold of the brick mold!
15: There the fire will devour you, the
sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves
like the locust, multiply like the grasshopper!
16: You increased your merchants more
than the stars of the heavens. The locust sheds its skin and flies away.
17: Your guards are like grasshoppers,
your scribes like swarms of locusts settling on the fences on a cold day- when
the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they have gone.
18: Your shepherds are asleep, O king of
Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with
no one to gather them.
19: There is no assuaging
your hurt, your wound is mortal. All who hear the news about you clap their
hands over you. For who has ever escaped your endless cruelty?
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