Historical
Judgment of Nineveh
1 The oracle[a] concerning Nineveh—the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2 A jealous and avenging God is Adonai.
Yes, Adonai is the avenger and master of wrath.
Adonai is avenger to His adversaries,
Yes, a keeper of wrath for His foes.
3 Adonai is slow to anger and great in power,
but He will by no means acquit the guilty.
Adonai’s way is with a whirlwind or with a storm wind,
Clouds are the dust of His feet.
4 Rebuking the sea, He made it dry,
as He has dried up all the rivers.
Bashan and Carmel languished,
Yes, Lebanon’s budding languished.
5 Mountains quaked because of Him,
and the hills have melted.
The earth has heaved up at His presence—
yes, the world and everything dwelling in it.
6 Before His indignation who can stand?
Who can withstand His burning anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and cliffs break down before Him.
7 Adonai is good as
a refuge in the day of distress,
and He knows those
who take refuge in Him.
8 But with an overwhelming flood,
He will make that place a total ruin.
Darkness will pursue His enemies.
9 What can you scheme against Adonai?
He will make a complete destruction.
Distress will not arise twice.
10 For even like tangled thorns they will be consumed,
or like drunkards who are drunk,
or like stubble that is fully dry.
11 Out of you has come a schemer of evil against Adonai,
a counselor of Belial.[b]
12 Thus said Adonai:
Though they are strong and numerous,
even so they will be mowed down
and pass away.
Although I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.
13 I will now break his yoke from you,
and tear apart your bonds.
14 Adonai has issued a command against you:
no more will your name be spread.
From the house of your gods
I will cut off the idol and metal image.
I will prepare your grave—
for you have become worthless.
2 Behold, upon the mountains
are the feet[c] of him bringing good news,[d]
proclaiming shalom.
O Judah, celebrate your festivals!
Fulfill your vows!
For never again will Belial pass through you.
He has been utterly cut off.
Devastation of Nineveh
2 A shatterer has come up against you.
Guard the rampart! Watch the way!
Chazak! Be very courageous!
3 For Adonai turned aside Jacob’s pride
like Israel’s pride—
for spoilers emptied them out
and ruined their vine branches.
4 He makes the shield of warriors’ red—
valiant men are clad in scarlet!
the chariot burns with metal fire
on the day of his preparation,
The fir trees are shaken.
5 The chariots dash madly about through the streets,
rushing to and fro in the plazas,
their appearance is like torches,
darting like flashes of lightning.
6 He will recall his majestic ones.
They will stumble in their march.
They will hasten to her wall.
Now the siege work is set up.
7 The river gates will be opened,
and the palace will melt away.
8 What was erected[e]
will be exiled and carried away.
Her handmaids are lamenting like the sound of doves,
beating their breasts.
9 Nineveh was like a pool of water for days
—now they are fleeing.
Stop, stop! Yet no one turns back.
10 Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!
For there is no end of treasure—
glory from everything precious.
11 Emptiness, desolation, waste!
Heart melting, knees buckling, anguish in all the loins,
all their faces grown pale!
12 Where is the lions’ den,
the feeding place for young lions—
where the lion went for a lion’s cub—
with nothing to disturb them?
13 The lion rips enough for his cubs,
strangles prey for his lionesses.
Yes, he fills his den with prey,
his lair with torn flesh.
14 “Here I am against you”
—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot—
“I will burn up her chariots in smoke.
A sword will devour your young lions.
I will cut them off from the land of your prey,
and the voice of your messengers will no longer be heard.”
City of Corpses
3 Oy, bloody city!
Full of deceit, full of plunder.
The prey never departs.
2 Crack of whip,
rattling of wheels,
horse galloping,
chariot jolting,
3 horseman climbing up,
blade of sword and flash of spear,
many slain, a mass of corpses
—no end to the corpses—
they stumble over their corpses!
The Harlot Humiliated
4 Because of the many fornications of the elegant prostitute,
the mistress of sorceries,
who sells nations by her fornications,
and clans through her sorceries—
5 Behold, I am against you
—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot—
I will lift your skirts over your face,
I will show nations your nakedness
and kingdoms your disgrace.
6 Yes, I will fling filth on you.
I will treat you with contempt
and set you up as a spectacle.
7 So it will be that all who see you
will recoil from you and say,
“Nineveh has been ravaged!
Who will lament for her?”
Where will I find comforters for you?
8 Are you better than No-amon[f],
situated among channels of the Nile,
water surrounding her,
whose fortress and wall was water?[g]
9 Cush and Egypt were her might—unlimited.
Put and Libya were her allies.
10 Yet she went off to exile among the captives.
Even her babes were dashed to pieces
at the head of all streets.
They cast lots for her dignitaries,
and all her great men were bound with chains.
11 You too will become drunk.
You will hide yourself.
You too will seek refuge from an enemy.
12 All your fortifications will be fig trees with firstfruits—
when shaken, they will fall, into an eater’s mouth.
13 See, your people within you are women[h].
The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies—
fire has devoured your gate-bars.
14 Draw water for a siege.
Strengthen your fortifications!
Go into the mud and tread mortar.
Take hold of the brick mold.
15 There fire will devour you.
Sword will cut you off,
devouring you like the locust.
Multiply like the locust.
Multiply like the swarming locust!
16 You have multiplied your traders
more than the stars of heaven.
Locusts have stripped and flown off.
17 Your princes are like locusts,
your officials like a locust swarm,
camping in the walls on a chilly day.
The sun rises, and they are chased away,
and where they are is unknown.
18 Your shepherds have become drowsy,
king of Assyria, your nobles lie down.
Your people are scattered on the hills,
with no one to gather them.
19 There is no cure for your brokenness,
your wound is severe.
All who hear the report about you,
clap hands over you.
For over whom has not passed
your constant cruelty?
Burden for Justice in Judah
1 The oracle[a] that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 How long, Adonai, have I cried for help,
yet You do not hear?
I cry out to You—‘Violence!’
yet You do not deliver.
3 Why do You show me wickedness,
and why must I behold mischief?
Yes, devastation and violence are before me.
There is strife, and contention arises.
4 Therefore, Torah has no effect,
and justice never goes forth.
For the wicked encircle the righteous
Therefore justice comes out perverted.
Adonai’s Answer: Chaldeans
5 “Look among the nations! Observe!
Astonish yourself! Be astounded!
For a work is being done in your days.
You will not believe it if it were told.[b]
6 For I am about to raise up the Chaldeans,
that bitter, impetuous nation,
marching all over the land,
to seize dwellings not its own.
7 Dreadful and terrifying,
Its justice and dignity derive from itself.
8 Its horses are swifter than leopards,
fiercer than wolves at dusk.
Its horsemen come galloping.
Its horsemen are coming from afar.
They fly like a vulture,[c] swooping down to eat.
9 All of them come for violence—
an assembling of faces to the east.
He gathers captives like sand.
10 He scoffs at kings,
and rulers are a joke to him.
He laughs at every stronghold—
he heaps up dirt and takes it.
11 Then a wind sweeps through and passes on.
He is guilty—This, his strength, is his god.”
Appeal for Justice on Chaldea
12 Are not You from antiquity—
Adonai my God, my Holy One?
We will not die.
Adonai, You have ordained him for judgment—
as You, O Rock, have established him to chasten.
13 With eyes too pure to see evil
You cannot look at such trouble!
Why do You look at the treacherous?
Why do You remain silent when a wicked one
swallows up those more righteous than him?
14 You made man like the fish of the sea,
like a creeping thing—with no one ruling over him.
15 He brings up all with hook in jaw,
drags away in his dragnet,
or gathers with his fishing-net.
Therefore he rejoices with glee.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his dragnet,
and offers incense to his fishing-net.
For through them his portion is rich
and his food abundant.
17 Will he empty his net for this reason
—continually slaying nations—with no compassion?
2 I will take my stand at my post,
and station myself on the rampart,
and I will watch to see what He will say to me,
and what I will answer regarding my argument.
Vision for an Appointed Time
2 Then Adonai answered me and said:
“Write down the vision,[d]
make it plain on the tablets,
so that the reader may run with it.
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time.
It hastens to the end
and will not fail.
If it should be slow in coming, wait for it,
For it will surely come—it will not delay.”[e]
Trust, Judgment and Glory
4 Behold, the puffed up one—
his soul is not right within him,
But the righteous will live by his trust.[f]
5 Indeed, because this wine betrays,
a proud man never rests.
He enlarges his desire like Sheol,
Like death, he is never satisfied.
So he gathers to himself all nations,
and collects all peoples for himself.
6 Will not all take up a proverb against him or a scornful riddle about him?
“Oy to one expanding what isn’t his!
How long?
Oy to one burdening himself with heavy debts!”
7 Will biting you arise suddenly,
and those shaking you awaken,
as you will become plunder for them?
8 Since you looted many nations,
all the survivors will plunder you—
because of human bloodshed
and violence done to the land, the city and all its inhabitants.
9 Oy to one surely getting unjust gain for his house—
to set his nest on high,
to escape the reach of calamity!
10 You schemed shame for your house,
by cutting off many peoples,
so going wrong yourself.
11 For a stone will cry out[g] from a wall,
and wooden beams will answer.
12 Oy to him who builds a city by bloodshed,
and establishes a town with injustice!
13 Behold, is it not from Adonai-Tzva’ot
that peoples toil to fuel a fire,
and nations exhaust themselves for emptiness?
14 For the earth will be filled with knowing the glory of Adonai,
as the waters cover the sea.
15 Oy to one who makes his neighbor drink,
who pours out Your fury, and even making him drunk
In order to gaze at his nakedness!
16 You are filled with disgrace rather than glory.
Drink—you too—and be uncircumcised.
The cup of Adonai’s right hand will surround you,
and disgrace will come upon your glory.
17 For the violence done to Lebanon will spread over you,
destruction of beasts terrifying them,
because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land,
the city and to all its inhabitants.
18 What use is an idol when its craftsman has carved it?
Or a metal image—a teacher of lies?
For a craftsman has trusted in the image that he created,
to make dumb idols.
19 Oy to one who says to wood: “Awake!”
To a dumb stone: “Rouse yourself!” Can it teach?
Look, it is plated with gold and silver,
but it has no spirit within it.
20 But Adonai is in His holy Temple.
Let all the land be silent before Him.
Habakkuk’s Confidence in Adonai
3 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, as a passionate song.
2 Adonai, I have heard the report about You
and I have come to fear.
Adonai, revive Your work throughout the years,
throughout the years make it known,
In wrath remember compassion.
3 God comes from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His majesty covers the heavens,
and His praise fills the earth.
4 With brilliance like light,
rays emanate from His hand.
There His power was hidden.
5 Pestilence goes before Him,
a fiery bolt goes forth at His feet.
6 He stood, and the earth shook.
He looked, and startled nations.
Ancient mountains were shattered,
hills of antiquity sank down.
His ways are everlasting.
7 I saw tents of Cushan under calamity.
The curtains of the land of Midian are trembling.
8 Adonai, is your wrath against rivers?
Or Your anger at the rivers?
Or is Your fury with the sea?
For You ride on Your horses,
Your chariots of salvation!
9 Your bow is laid bare.
Sworn are rods—a decree. Selah
You cleave the land with rivers.
10 The mountains saw You and writhe.
A downpour of water overflows.
The deep gives its voice—
it lifts up hands high.
11 Sun and moon, stand in lofty abode.
At the flash of Your arrows they go,
at the radiance of the lightning of Your spear.
12 With indignation You pace the land.
With anger You thresh nations.
13 You went out for the salvation of Your people—
for the deliverance of Your anointed one.[h]
You shatter the head of the house of the wicked—
to lay it bare from foundation up to the top. Selah
14 You have pierced his chief rulers with his own staff—
They stormed in to scatter me.
Their exultation is like devouring the weak in secret.
15 You marched forth,
Your horses in the sea—much water foaming.
16 I heard, and my belly trembled.
My lips quivered at the sound.
Decay comes into my bones.
I tremble where I stand,
since I must wait quietly for a day of distress
to come up against the people who will invade us.
17 Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and there is no yield on the vines,
Though the olive crop fail,
and the fields produce no food,
the flock is cut off from the fold,
and there is no cattle in the stalls.
18 Yet will I triumph in Adonai,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation![i]
19 Adonai my Lord, is my strength.
He has made my feet like a deer’s,
and will make me walk on my high places.
For the choir director: On my stringed instruments.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.