Nahum 2
English Standard Version
The Destruction of Nineveh
2 (A)The scatterer has come up against you.
(B)Man the ramparts;
watch the road;
dress for battle;[a]
collect all your strength.
2 For (C)the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob
as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
and (D)ruined their branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is red;
(E)his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
on the day he musters them;
the cypress spears are brandished.
4 (F)The chariots race madly through the streets;
they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
they dart like lightning.
5 He remembers (G)his officers;
(H)they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
the siege tower[b] is set up.
6 (I)The river gates are opened;
the palace (J)melts away;
7 its mistress[c] is (K)stripped;[d] she is carried off,
her slave girls (L)lamenting,
moaning like doves
and beating their breasts.
8 (M)Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters run away.[e]
“Halt! Halt!” they cry,
but (N)none turns back.
9 Plunder the silver,
plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
or of the wealth of all precious things.
10 (O)Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
(P)Hearts melt and (Q)knees tremble;
(R)anguish is in all loins;
(S)all faces grow pale!
11 Where is the lions' den,
the feeding place of (T)the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
where his cubs were, with (U)none to disturb?
12 (V)The lion tore enough for his cubs
and (W)strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.
13 (X)Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and (Y)I will burn your[f] chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and (Z)the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.
Micah 3
English Standard Version
Rulers and Prophets Denounced
3 And I said:
(A)Hear, you heads of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel!
(B)Is it not for you to know justice?—
2 you (C)who hate the good and love the evil,
(D)who tear the skin from off my people[a]
and their flesh from off their bones,
3 (E)who eat the flesh of my people,
and flay their skin from off them,
and break their bones in pieces
and chop them up like meat in a pot,
like flesh in a cauldron.
4 (F)Then they will cry to the Lord,
but he will not answer them;
(G)he will hide his face from them at that time,
because they have made their deeds evil.
5 Thus says the Lord concerning (H)the prophets
who lead my people astray,
(I)who cry “Peace”
when they have something to eat,
but declare war against him
who puts nothing into their mouths.
6 Therefore (J)it shall be night to you, without vision,
and darkness to you, without divination.
(K)The sun shall go down on the prophets,
and the day shall be black over them;
7 (L)the seers shall be disgraced,
and the diviners put to shame;
(M)they shall all cover their lips,
for (N)there is no answer from God.
8 But as for me, (O)I am filled with power,
with the Spirit of the Lord,
and with justice and might,
to declare to Jacob (P)his transgression
and to Israel his sin.
9 (Q)Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob
and rulers of the house of Israel,
(R)who detest justice
and make crooked all that is straight,
10 (S)who build Zion with blood
and Jerusalem with iniquity.
11 (T)Its heads give judgment for a bribe;
(U)its priests teach for a price;
(V)its prophets practice divination for money;
(W)yet they lean on the Lord and (X)say,
“Is not the Lord in the midst of us?
(Y)No disaster shall come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you
(Z)Zion shall be plowed as a field;
Jerusalem (AA)shall become a heap of ruins,
and (AB)the mountain of the house (AC)a wooded height.
Footnotes
- Micah 3:2 Hebrew from off them
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
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