< Nahum 1 >
1 The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2 Jehovah is a jealous God and avenges. Jehovah avenges and is full of wrath. Jehovah takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserves wrath for his enemies.
3 Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty. Jehovah 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 makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languishes.
5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is up heaved at his presence. Yea, the world, and all who dwell therein.
6 Who can stand before his indignation? And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him.
7 Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But with an over running flood he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
9 What do ye devise against Jehovah? He will make a full end. Affliction shall not rise up the second time.
10 For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly as dry stubble.
11 He has gone forth out of thee, who devises evil against Jehovah, who counsels wickedness.
12 Thus says Jehovah: Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so they shall be cut down. And he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.
13 And now I will break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds apart.
14 And Jehovah has given commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown. Out of the house of thy gods I will cut off the graven image and the molten image. I will make thy grave, for thou are vile.
15 Behold, upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep thy feasts, O Judah. Perform thy vows, for the wicked one shall no more pass through thee. He is utterly cut off.