Nahum 3
BasisBijbel
Ninevé wordt gestraft omdat de mensen ontrouw zijn geworden aan God
3 Pas maar op, jij bloedstad, vol leugens, vol geweld, vol roof! Hoor! 2 Knallende zwepen! Ratelende wielen! Stampende paarden! Dreunende wagens! 3 Steigerende ruiters! Vlammende zwaarden! Bliksemende speren! Ontelbare doden. Eindeloos veel lijken. Je struikelt erover.
4 Dit gebeurt met jou, Ninevé, omdat je je als een hoer gedragen hebt. Je hebt andere goden aanbeden en was ontrouw aan Mij.[a] Je was zo prachtig, zo betoverend mooi. Je wist daarmee de volken te betoveren. Je liet ze doen wat jij wilde. 5 Let op, Ik zal je daarvoor straffen, zegt de Heer van de hemelse legers. Ik zal je straffen zoals een vrouw gestraft wordt die ontrouw is geweest aan haar man: Ik kleed je uit zodat alle volken je naakt zullen zien staan. 6 Ik zal vuil naar je gooien. Ik zal je voor schut zetten. Ik zet je te kijk. 7 Iedereen die jou zo zal zien, zal bij je wegvluchten. Ze zullen zeggen: 'Ninevé is verwoest!' Wie zal daar verdrietig over zijn? Wie zal jou willen troosten? 8 Ninevé, ben jij soms beter dan de grote stad No aan de Nijl?[b] No vertrouwde ook op de bescherming van het water. Het water was zijn muur. 9 En No kon rekenen op de hulp van een ontelbaar leger van Ethiopiërs en Egyptenaren, Putieten en Libiërs. 10 Toch is die stad veroverd en zijn de bewoners gevangen meegenomen. Toch zijn de baby's vermoord op de hoeken van de straten. Toch is er over de leiders en rijke mensen geloot en zijn alle leiders geboeid meegenomen.
11 Ook jij, Ninevé, zal moeten drinken uit de wijnbeker van mijn straf. Ook jij zal dronken worden, net als No. Ook jij zal een schuilplaats zoeken tegen de vijand. 12 Al je burchten worden leeggeschud, zoals vijgen van de vijgenboom worden geschud en de eter zó in de mond vallen. 13 Je soldaten zullen op bange vrouwen lijken. Zonder moeite zullen de vijanden de poorten van je stad binnen komen. De grendels van je poortdeuren zullen worden verbrand.
14 Verzamel maar water voor als jullie omsingeld zijn! Verstevig de muren maar! Trap maar klei om extra bouwstenen te maken! Maak de oven maar klaar om de stenen te bakken! 15 Maar plotseling zullen jullie door het vuur worden overvallen, door het zwaard worden gedood. Zoals een sprinkhanenplaag het hele land vernietigt, zo zullen jullie allemaal vernietigd worden door het zwaard. Zorg dat jullie leger zo groot is als een zwerm sprinkhanen!
16 Ninevé, je hebt meer handelaars dan er sterren aan de hemel staan. Ze verspreiden zich als sprinkhanen over het land. En net als de sprinkhanen verslinden ze alles wat ze tegenkomen en vliegen dan weg. 17 De rijke mensen in je stad, je leiders en je aanvoerders lijken wel een zwerm sprinkhanen die, zolang het koud is, tegen de muren zitten. Maar zodra de zon opkomt, vliegen ze weg. Niemand weet waar ze zijn gebleven.
18 Uw leiders zullen slapen, koning van Assur! Uw sterke leger zal worden gedood. Uw volk zal alle kanten op vluchten, de bergen in. Niemand zal hen nog bij elkaar brengen. 19 Het is afgelopen met u. Er is geen herstel meer mogelijk. Iedereen die hoort wat er met u is gebeurd, klapt van blijdschap in de handen. Want alle volken hebben onder u geleden.
Nahum 3
New King James Version
The Woe of Nineveh
3 Woe to the (A)bloody city!
It is all full of lies and robbery.
Its [a]victim never departs.
2 The noise of a whip
And the noise of rattling wheels,
Of galloping horses,
Of [b]clattering chariots!
3 Horsemen charge with bright sword and glittering spear.
There is a multitude of slain,
A great number of bodies,
Countless corpses—
They stumble over the corpses—
4 Because of the multitude of [c]harlotries of the [d]seductive harlot,
(B)The mistress of sorceries,
Who sells nations through her harlotries,
And families through her sorceries.
5 “Behold, I am (C)against you,” says the Lord of hosts;
(D)“I will lift your skirts over your face,
I will show the nations your nakedness,
And the kingdoms your shame.
6 I will cast abominable filth upon you,
Make you (E)vile,[e]
And make you (F)a spectacle.
7 It shall come to pass that all who look upon you
(G)Will flee from you, and say,
(H)‘Nineveh is laid waste!
(I)Who will bemoan her?’
Where shall I seek comforters for you?”
8 (J)Are you better than (K)No[f] Amon
That was situated by the [g]River,
That had the waters around her,
Whose rampart was the sea,
Whose wall was the sea?
9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength,
And it was boundless;
(L)Put and Lubim were [h]your helpers.
10 Yet she was carried away,
She went into captivity;
(M)Her young children also were dashed to pieces
(N)At the head of every street;
They (O)cast lots for her honorable men,
And all her great men were bound in chains.
11 You also will be (P)drunk;
You will be hidden;
You also will seek refuge from the enemy.
12 All your strongholds are (Q)fig trees with ripened figs:
If they are shaken,
They fall into the mouth of the eater.
13 Surely, (R)your people in your midst are women!
The gates of your land are wide open for your enemies;
Fire shall devour the (S)bars of your gates.
14 Draw your water for the siege!
(T)Fortify your strongholds!
Go into the clay and tread the mortar!
Make strong the brick kiln!
15 There the fire will devour you,
The sword will cut you off;
It will eat you up like a (U)locust.
Make yourself many—like the locust!
Make yourself many—like the swarming locusts!
16 You have multiplied your (V)merchants more than the stars of heaven.
The locust plunders and flies away.
17 (W)Your commanders are like swarming locusts,
And your generals like great grasshoppers,
Which camp in the hedges on a cold day;
When the sun rises they flee away,
And the place where they are is not known.
18 (X)Your shepherds slumber, O (Y)king of Assyria;
Your nobles rest in the dust.
Your people are (Z)scattered on the mountains,
And no one gathers them.
19 Your injury has no healing,
(AA)Your wound is severe.
(AB)All who hear news of you
Will clap their hands over you,
For upon whom has not your wickedness passed continually?
Nahum 3
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 3
Woe to the Bloodstained City[a]
1 Woe to the bloodstained city,
festering with lies,
full of booty,
never ceasing in its plunder.
2 Endless are the crack of the whip
and the rumbling of wheels,
galloping horses
and jolting chariots,
3 charging cavalry,
flashing swords,
shimmering spears,
endless piles of the slain,
heaps of corpses,
endless bodies to stumble over.
4 Because of the persistent debaucheries of the harlot,
with her alluring facade as a mistress of sorcery,
who enslaved nations by her harlotries
and peoples by her witchcraft.
5 “I am against you,”
says the Lord of hosts.
“I will lift up your skirts over your face
and exhibit your nakedness to the nations,
your shame to the kingdoms.
6 I will pelt you with filth,
and treat you with contempt,
and make a spectacle of you.
7 Then all those who see you
will shrink from you and say,
‘Nineveh is destroyed.’
Who will console her?
Where can anyone be found to comfort you?”
Are You Better than No-amon?[b]
8 [c]Are you better than No-amon,
a city situated among streams
and surrounded by water,
with the seas serving as her rampart
and water as her wall?
9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength,
and that strength was boundless;
Put and the Lybians were her allies.
10 Nevertheless, even she became an exile
and went into captivity.
Even her infants were dashed to pieces
at every street corner.
Lots were cast for her nobles,
and all her leaders were put in chains.
11 You, too, will become drunk
and go into hiding.
You, too, will flee,
seeking a refuge from the enemy.
The Situation of Nineveh Is Desperate[d]
12 All your fortresses are fig trees
that bear early fruit.
As soon as they are shaken,
they fall into the mouth of the eater.
13 Look at your troops.
You are a nation of women.
The gates of your country
lie open to your enemies;
fire has consumed the bars of your gates.
14 Draw yourselves water for the siege!
Strengthen your fortifications!
Trample the clay,
tread the mortar,
repair the brickwork!
15 Then the fire will consume you
and the sword will cut you off.
Multiply yourselves like the locusts,
make yourselves as numerous as the grasshoppers.
Like the Locusts, Strip the Land and Fly Away[e]
16 You have increased the number of your merchants
until they now outnumber the stars of the heavens,
but like the locusts, they strip the land
and then fly away.
17 Your guards are like locusts,
and your scribes are like swarms of grasshoppers
that settle in the walls
on a cold day.
However, when the sun rises, they fly away,
and no one knows where they have gone.
Incurable Is Your Sickness[f]
18 Alas, your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your neighbors lie down to rest.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with no one to gather them.
19 There is no way to relieve your wound;
your injury is mortal.
All who hear this news about your fate
clap their hands over your downfall.
For who has not suffered
as a result of your relentless cruelty?
Footnotes
- Nahum 3:1 Hallucinating description of the last days of Nineveh: the seductive gluttony of the peoples undergoes the pain of adulterous women.
- Nahum 3:8 Nineveh will know the fate that she herself inflicted, at the time of her splendor, at Thebes, the opulent city of Egypt plundered, in 767 B.C., by Ashurbanipal. This tragic change of situation underlies the fragility of empires built by men.
- Nahum 3:8 No-amon: called Thebes by the Greeks, was the capital of Upper Egypt; it, too, fell despite the power of Pharaoh Tirhakah (an Ethiopian by origin; see v. 9). Put: a non-Semitic population in southern Egypt.
- Nahum 3:12 What good, then, is it to work to repair the gaps with clay and intrigues.
- Nahum 3:16 Like a swarm of insects, a crowd of businessmen and functionaries had battered the Orient. The wind turns and goes, and takes away the evil-doing swarm.
- Nahum 3:18 This funereal chant, full of irony, reveals to what point the Assyrian tyranny had reached.
© stichting BasisBijbel 2013 Gecorrigeerde tekst © 2015 Alle rechten voorbehouden Uitgegeven bij de ZakBijbelBond: 2016
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
