Nahum 1–3

¹An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.^*

The Consuming Wrath of God

²A jealous and avenging God is the Lord;

the Lord is avenging and wrathful;

the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries

and prolongs it against his enemies.^*

³The 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.^*

⁴He rebukes the sea and makes it dry,

and he dries up all the rivers;

Bashan and Carmel wither,

and the bloom of Lebanon fades.

⁵The mountains quake before him,

and the hills melt;

the earth heaves before him,

the world and all who live in it.^*

⁶Who 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.^*

⁷The Lord is good,

a stronghold in a day of trouble;

he protects those who take refuge in him,

⁸even in a rushing flood.

He will make a full end of his adversaries^a

and will pursue his enemies into darkness.^*

⁹Why do you plot against the Lord?

He will make an end;

no adversary will rise up twice.^*

¹⁰Like thorns they are entangled;

like drunkards they are drunk;

they are consumed like dry straw.^*

¹¹From you one has gone out

who plots evil against the Lord,

one who counsels wickedness.^*

Good News for Judah

¹²Thus says the Lord:

Though they are at full strength and many,^b

they will be cut off and pass away.

Though I have afflicted you,

I will afflict you no more.^*

¹³And now I will break off his yoke from you

and snap the bonds that bind you.^*

¹⁴The 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 prepare your grave, for you are worthless.^*

^15cLook! 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.^*

The Destruction of the Wicked City

²A scatterer 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.)^*

³The 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^d prance.^*

⁴The chariots race madly through the streets;

they rush to and fro through the squares;

their appearance is like torches;

they dart like lightning.^*

⁵He calls his officers;

they stumble as they come forward;

they hasten to the wall,

and the screen^e is set up.

⁶The river gates are opened;

the palace trembles.

⁷It is decreed^f that the city^g be exiled,

its slave women led away,

moaning like doves

and beating their breasts.^*

⁸Nineveh is like a pool

whose waters^h 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!”

¹⁰Devastation, desolation, and destruction!

Hearts faint and knees tremble;

all loins quake;

all faces grow pale!^*

¹¹What 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?^*

¹²The 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.^*

¹³See, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will burn yourⁱ 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.^*

Ruin Imminent and Inevitable

³Woe, city of bloodshed,

utterly deceitful, full of plunder—

no end to the prey!^*

²The crack of whip and rumble of wheel,

galloping horse and bounding chariot!^*

³Horsemen charging,

flashing sword and glittering spear,

piles of dead,

heaps of corpses,

dead bodies without end—

they stumble over the bodies!^*

⁴Because of the countless debaucheries of the prostitute,

gracefully alluring, mistress of sorcery,

who enslaves^j nations through her debaucheries

and peoples through her sorcery,^*

⁵I 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.^*

⁶I will throw filth at you

and treat you with contempt

and make you a spectacle.^*

⁷Then all who see you will shrink from you and say,

“Nineveh is devastated; who will bemoan her?”

Where shall I seek comforters for you?^*

⁸Are you better than Thebes^k

that sat by the Nile,

with water around her,

her rampart a sea,

water her wall?^*

⁹Cush was her strength,

Egypt, too, and that without limit;

Put and the Libyans were her^l helpers.^*

¹⁰Yet 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.^*

¹¹You also will be drunken;

you will go into hiding;^m

you will seek

a refuge from the enemy.^*

¹²All your fortresses are like fig trees

with first-ripe figs—

if shaken they fall

into the mouth of the eater.^*

¹³Look 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.^*

¹⁴Draw water for the siege;

strengthen your forts;

trample the clay;

tread the mortar;

take hold of the brick mold!

¹⁵There 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!^*

¹⁶You increased your merchants

more than the stars of the heavens.

The locust sheds its skin and flies away.

¹⁷Your guards are like grasshoppers,

your scribes like swarmsⁿ of locusts

settling on the fences

on a cold day—

when the sun rises, they fly away;

no one knows where they have gone.

¹⁸Your shepherds are asleep,

O king of Assyria;

your nobles slumber.

Your people are scattered on the mountains

with no one to gather them.^*

¹⁹There 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?^*