Historical
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?
1 The burden which Habakkuk the Prophet saw:
2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and you will not hear, cry out to You for violence, and You will not help?
3 Why do You show me iniquity and cause me to behold sorrow? For plundering and violence are before me. And there are those who raise strife and contention.
4 Therefore, the Law is dissolved, and judgment never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous. Therefore, wrong judgment proceeds.
5 “Behold among the heathen, and watch, and wonder, and marvel. For I will work a work in your days. You will not believe it, though it is told to you.
6 “For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and furious nation, who shall go upon the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling places that are not theirs.
7 “They are terrible and fearful. Their judgment and their dignity shall proceed themselves.
8 “Also, their horses are swifter than leopards, and fiercer than wolves in the evening. And their horsemen are numerous. And their horsemen shall come from afar. They shall fly as the eagle diving toward prey.
9 “They all come to plunder. For their faces shall be an East wind. And they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
10 “And they shall mock the kings. And the princes shall be a scorn to them. They shall deride every stronghold. For they shall gather dust and take it.
11 “Then they shall take courage and transgress and do wickedly, imputing their power to their god.”
12 Are not You of old, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, You have ordained them for judgment! And, O God, You have established them for correction.
13 You are of pure Eyes and cannot consider evil. You cannot regard wickedness. Why do You look upon the transgressors and hold Your tongue when the wicked devours the man who is more righteous than he?
14 And men who have no ruler over them You make as the fish of the sea and as the creeping things.
15 They take up all with the hook. They catch it in their net and gather it in their fishing net, over which they rejoice and are glad.
16 Therefore, they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their fishing net, because by them their portion is fat and their food plentiful.
17 Shall they, therefore, stretch out their net while continuing to slay the nations without pity?
2 I will stand upon my watch and set myself upon the tower, and will look and see what He would say to me, and what I shall answer to Him Who rebukes me.
2 And the LORD answered me, and said, “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, so that he who reads it may run.
3 “For the vision is yet for an appointed time. But in the end, it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarries, wait. For it shall surely come and shall not delay.
4 “Behold, he who lifts himself up, his mind is not upright in him. But the just shall live by his faith.
5 “Yea, indeed the proud man is as he who transgresses by wine. Therefore, he shall not endure because he has enlarged his desire as Hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers all nations to himself, and heaps all people for himself.
6 “Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, ‘Woe to him who increases that which is not his—How long? —and to him who loads himself with heavy debt!
7 “Shall not those who bite you rise up suddenly, and those who stir you awaken, and make you their prey?
8 “Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you, because of men’s blood, and for the wrong done in the land, in the city, and to all who dwell therein.
9 “Woe to him who covets an evil gain for his House, so that he may set his nest on high to escape from the power of evil!
10 “You have consulted shame to your own House by destroying many people and have sinned against your own soul.
11 “For the stone shall cry out of the wall. And out of the timber shall the beam answer it.
12 “Woe to him who builds a town with blood and erects a city by iniquity.
13 “Behold, is it not of the LORD of Hosts that the people shall labor in the very fire? The people shall weary themselves for frivolity.
14 “For the Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
15 “Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink and mixes it with your own skin to make him drunk, so that you may see their nakedness.
16 “You are filled with shame for glory. You drink also and are uncovered! The cup of the LORD’s right Hand shall be turned to you, and shameful spewing, for your glory.
17 “For the cruelty of Lebanon shall cover you, as shall the plunder of the beasts which made them afraid because of men’s blood, and for the wrong done in the land, in the city, and to all who dwell in them.
18 “What profit is the image? For the maker has made it an image, and a teacher of lies. Though, he who made it trusts in it when he makes dumb idols.
19 “Woe to him who says to the wood, ‘Awake,’ and to the dumb stone, ‘Rise up! It shall teach you! Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver. And there is no breath in it.
20 “But the LORD is in His Holy Temple. Let all the Earth keep silence before Him.”
3 A prayer of Habakkuk the Prophet, for Shiggaion:
2 O LORD, I have heard Your voice, and was afraid! O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the people! In the midst of the years make it known! In wrath remember mercy!
3 God comes from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His Glory covers the heavens. And the Earth is full of His praise.
4 And His brightness was as the light. He had horns coming out of His Hands. His power was hidden there.
5 Before Him went the pestilence. And burning coals went forth before His feet.
6 He stood and measured the Earth. He beheld and dissolved the nations. And the everlasting mountains were broken, the ancient hills bowed. His ways are everlasting!
7 I saw the tents of Cushan in iniquity. The curtains of the land of Midian trembled!
8 Was the LORD displeased with the rivers? Or was Your anger against the rivers? Or was Your wrath against the sea, so that You rode upon Your horses? Your chariots brought salvation.
9 Your bow was manifestly revealed. The oaths of the tribes were a sure Word. Selah. You split the earth with rivers.
10 The mountains saw You, and they trembled! The stream of water passed. The deep made a noise and lifted up its hand on high.
11 The Sun and Moon stood still in their habitation. At the light of Your arrows they went, at the bright shining of Your spears.
12 You tread down the land in anger, threshed the heathen in displeasure.
13 You went forth for the salvation of Your people, for salvation with Your Anointed. You have wounded the head of the House of the wicked, and uncovered it, foundation to neck. Selah.
14 You struck through the heads of its villages with its own staffs: They came out as a whirlwind to scatter me. Their rejoicing was like devouring the poor secretly.
15 You walked in the sea with Your horses, upon the heap of great waters.
16 When I heard, my belly trembled. My lips shook at the voice. Rottenness entered into my bones. And I trembled in myself, so that I might rest in the time of trouble. When He comes up to the people, He shall destroy them.
17 For the fig tree shall not flourish, nor fruit in the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail. And the fields shall yield no food. The sheep shall be cut off from the fold. And there shall be no herd in the stalls.
18 But I will rejoice in the LORD! I will joy in the God of my salvation!
19 The LORD God is my strength. He will make my feet like a deer’s feet. And He will make me walk upon my high places. To the chief singer on Neginoth.
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