²A jealous and avenging •God is Jehovah: an avenger is Jehovah, and full of fury: Jehovah taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. ³Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power, and doth not at all clear the guilty: Jehovah, —his way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. ⁴He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. ⁵The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt, and the earth is upheaved at his presence, and the world, and all that dwell therein. ⁶Who shall stand before his indignation? and who shall abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him. ⁷Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. ⁸But with an overrunning flood he will make a full end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.

⁹What do ye imagine against Jehovah? He will make a full end: trouble shall not rise up the second time. ¹⁰Though they be tangled together as thorns, and be as drenched from their drink, they shall be devoured as dry stubble, completely. ¹¹Out of thee is gone forth one that imagineth evil against Jehovah, a wicked counsellor. ¹²Thus saith Jehovah: Though they be complete in number, and many as they be, even so shall they be cut down, and he shall pass away; and though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. ¹³And now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds asunder. ¹⁴And Jehovah hath given commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy god will I cut off the graven image, and the molten image: I will prepare thy grave; for thou art vile. ¹⁵Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings, that publisheth peace! Celebrate thy feasts, Judah, perform thy vows: for the wicked one shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.

Chapter 2

¹He that dasheth in pieces is come up against thy face: keep the fortress, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily. ²For Jehovah hath brought again the glory of Jacob, as the glory of Israel; for the wasters have wasted them, and marred their vine-branches. ³The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots glitter with the sheen of steel, in the day of his preparation, and the spears are brandished. ⁴The chariots rush madly in the streets, they justle one against another in the broad ways: the appearance of them is like torches, they run like lightnings. ⁵He bethinketh him of his nobles: they stumble in their march; they make haste to the wall thereof, and the shelter is prepared. ⁶The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace melteth away. ⁷And it is decreed: she shall be uncovered, she shall be led away, and her maids shall moan as with the voice of doves, drumming upon their breasts. ⁸Nineveh hath been like a pool of water, since the day she existed, yet they flee away. …Stand! Stand! But none looketh back. ⁹Plunder the silver, plunder the gold; for there is no end of the splendid store of all precious vessels. ¹⁰She is empty, and void, and waste; and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and writhing pain is in all loins, and all their faces grow pale.

¹¹Where is now the den of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion, the lioness, and the lion’s whelp walked, and none made them afraid? ¹²The lion tore in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin. ¹³Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts: and I will burn her chariots into smoke; and the sword shall devour thy young lions, and I will cut off thy prey from the earth; and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

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