Beginning

1 The burden of Nineveh. The Book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

² God is jealous. And the LORD avenges. The LORD avenges, the LORD of anger. The LORD will take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies.

³ The LORD is slow to anger, but great in power, and will not surely acquit. The LORD has His way in the whirlwind, and in the storm. And the clouds are the dust of His feet.

⁴ He rebukes the sea and dries it. And He dries up all the rivers. Bashan is withered, and Carmel. And the flower of Lebanon is wilted.

⁵ The mountains tremble for Him, and the hills melt. And the Earth is burnt at His sight, yea the world and all who dwell in it.

⁶ Who can stand before His wrath? Or who can abide in the fierceness of His wrath? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken by Him.

⁷ The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble. And He knows those who trust in Him.

⁸ But passing over as with a flood, He will utterly destroy its place. And darkness shall pursue His enemies.

⁹ What do you imagine against the LORD? He will make an utter destruction. Affliction shall not rise up a second time.

¹⁰ For like tangled thorns, and like drunkards in their drunkenness, they shall be devoured as fully dried stubble.

¹¹ There comes one out of you who imagines evil against the LORD, a wicked counselor.

¹² Thus says the LORD: “Though they are quiet, and also many, yet thus shall they be cut off when he shall pass. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

¹³ “For now I will break his yoke from you and will burst your bonds asunder.

¹⁴ “And the LORD has given a Commandment concerning you that no more of your name be scattered. Out of the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the cast image. I will make it your grave for you, for you are vile.

¹⁵ “Behold the feet of him who declares and publishes peace upon the mountains. O Judah, keep your solemn Feasts, perform your vows! For the wicked shall no longer pass through you. He is utterly cut off.”

2 The destroyer has come before your face. Man the ramparts! Watch the road! Harden yourselves! Increase your strength mightily!

² For the LORD has turned away the glory of Jacob, as the glory of Israel. For the emptiers have emptied them out and marred their vine branches.

³ The shields of His mighty men are made red. The valiant men are in scarlet. The chariots are afire, flaming on the day of His preparation. And the fir trees shall tremble.

⁴ The chariots shall rage in the streets. They shall run to and fro on the highways. They shall seem like lamps. They shall shoot like lightning.

⁵ He shall remember His strong men. They shall stumble as they go. They shall hurry to its walls. And the defense shall be prepared.

⁶ The gates of the rivers shall be opened. And the palace shall melt.

⁷ And Huzzab shall be led away captive. And her maids shall lead, as with the voice of doves, striking upon their breasts.

⁸ Though Nineveh was of old like a pool of water, now they shall flee away. “Stand! Stand!” shall they cry. But no one shall look back.

⁹ Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! For there is no end to the treasure and glory of all the pleasant vessels!

¹⁰ She is empty and void and laid waste. And the heart melts. And the knees strike together. And sorrow is in all loins. And the faces of them all gather heat.

¹¹ Where is the dwelling of the lions and the pasture of the lion’s whelps, where the lion and the lioness awakened, and the lion’s whelp, and no one made them afraid?

¹² The lion tore enough in pieces for his whelps, and worried for his lioness, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with spoil.

¹³ “Behold, I come to you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and I will burn her chariots in the smoke. And the sword shall devour your young lions. And I will cut off your spoil from the Earth. And the voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.”

3 O bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery. And its prey never departs:

² the noise of a whip and the noise of the moving of the wheels and the beating of the horses and the leaping of the chariots.

³ The horseman lifts up both the bright sword and the glittering spear. And a multitude is slain, and the dead bodies are many. There is no end of their corpses. They stumble over their corpses,

⁴ because of the multitude of the fornications of the beautiful harlot, who is a mistress of witchcraft and sells the people through her whoredom and the nations through her witchcrafts.

⁵ “Behold, I come upon you,” says the LORD of Hosts, “and will uncover your skirts upon your face, and will show the nations your filthiness, and the kingdoms your shame.

⁶ “And I will cast filth upon you, and make you vile, and will set you as a spectacle.

⁷ “And it shall happen at that time that all those who look upon you shall flee from you, and say, ‘Nineveh is destroyed! Who will have pity upon her?’ Where shall I seek comforters for you?”

⁸ Are you better than No, who was full of people, which lay in the rivers and had the waters all around it, whose ditch was the sea, and her wall from the sea?

⁹ Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength. And there was no end. Put and Lubim were her helpers.

¹⁰ Yet she was carried away and went into captivity. Also, her young children were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets. And they cast lots for her noble men. And all her mighty men were bound in chains.

¹¹ Also, you shall be drunk. You shall hide yourself and shall seek help because of the enemy.

¹² All your strong cities shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs. For if they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.

¹³ Behold, your people within you are women. The gates of your land shall be opened to your enemies. The fire shall devour your bars.

¹⁴ Draw water for the siege. Fortify your strongholds. Go into the clay and temper the mortar. Make strong bricks.

¹⁵ There shall the fire devour you. The sword shall cut you off. It shall eat you up like the locusts. You are multiplied like the locusts, multiplied like the swarming locusts.

¹⁶ You have multiplied your merchants above the stars of heaven. The locust plunders and flies away.

¹⁷ Your princes are as the swarming locusts, and your captains as the great grasshoppers which remain in the hedges in the cold time. When the Sun rises, they flee away. And the place where they are is not known.

¹⁸ Your shepherds sleep, O king of Assyria! Your strong men lie down. Your people are scattered upon the mountains. And no man gathers.

¹⁹ There is no healing of your wound. Your plague is grievous. All who hear of you shall clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not your malice passed continually?