Nahum 1

¹³And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria; He will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as a desert.

¹This is the burden of the word of the Lord against the land of Hadrach and Damascus its resting place—for the eyes of men and of all the tribes of Israel are upon the Lord—

²“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.”

⁸Nineveh has been like a pool of water throughout her days, but now it is draining away. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one turns back.

¹This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received:

¹¹From that land he went forth into Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,

⁵You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

²This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “I am jealous for Zion with great zeal; I am jealous for her with great fervor.”

¹O Lord, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth.

¹⁴For you must not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

¹⁹But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins.

¹³The Lord goes forth like a mighty one; He stirs up His zeal like a warrior. He shouts; yes, He roars in triumph over His enemies:

⁵Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.

⁶Then the Lord passed in front of Moses and called out: “The Lord, the Lord God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,

⁷maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

¹⁷They refused to listen and failed to remember the wonders You performed among them. They stiffened their necks and appointed a leader to return them to their bondage in Egypt. But You are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in loving devotion, and You did not forsake them.

⁸The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion.

³laying the beams of His chambers in the waters above, making the clouds His chariot, walking on the wings of the wind.

⁸The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion.

⁹The land mourns and languishes; Lebanon is ashamed and decayed. Sharon is like a desert; Bashan and Carmel shake off their leaves.

⁹He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.

²Why was no one there when I arrived? Why did no one answer when I called? Is My hand too short to redeem you? Or do I lack the strength to deliver you? Behold, My rebuke dries up the sea; I turn the rivers into a desert; the fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.

³I clothe the heavens in black and make sackcloth their covering.”

¹⁰Was it not You who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea for the redeemed to cross over?

¹³When the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—touch down in the waters of the Jordan, its flowing waters will be cut off and will stand up in a heap.”

¹⁴So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of them.

⁷At Your rebuke the waters fled; at the sound of Your thunder they hurried away—

⁴The mountains will melt beneath Him, and the valleys will split apart, like wax before the fire, like water rushing down a slope.

²⁴I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking; all the hills were swaying.

⁸Then the earth shook and quaked; the foundations of the heavens trembled; they were shaken because He burned with anger.

⁵The mountains quaked before the Lord, the One of Sinai, before the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence,

²as fire kindles the brushwood and causes the water to boil, to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!

⁸the earth shook and the heavens poured down rain before God, the One on Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.

¹⁰But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and eternal King. The earth quakes at His wrath, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.

²But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.

²²For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.

²³I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.

⁷You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You?

²The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and full of wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on His foes and reserves wrath for His enemies.

¹¹The Lord has exhausted His wrath; He has poured out His fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, and it has consumed her foundations.

²⁷My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.

¹⁹Nevertheless, God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from iniquity.”

²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.

¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me,

¹He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

²I will say to the Lord, “You are my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

⁵For the Lord is good, and His loving devotion endures forever; His faithfulness continues to all generations.

¹³Therefore this is what the Lord God says: In My wrath I will release a windstorm, and in My anger torrents of rain and hail will fall with destructive fury.

²²Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.

¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the level. Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, and water will flood your hiding place.

¹³And He will stretch out His hand against the north and destroy Assyria; He will make Nineveh a desolation, as dry as a desert.

⁸Will not the land quake for this, and all its dwellers mourn? All of it will swell like the Nile; it will surge and then subside like the Nile in Egypt.

¹⁵Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.

¹¹Though they intend You harm, the schemes they devise will not prevail.

³⁰There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the Lord.

¹⁰The Lord frustrates the plans of the nations; He thwarts the devices of the peoples.

⁵We demolish arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

¹Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

²The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the Lord and against His Anointed One:

¹¹From you, O Nineveh, comes forth a plotter of evil against the Lord, a counselor of wickedness.

⁴The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a hedge of thorns. The day for your watchmen has come, the day of your visitation. Now is the time of their confusion.

²⁴Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes the straw, and as dry grass shrivels in the flame, so their roots will decay and their blossoms will blow away like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of Hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

¹¹You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy.

¹“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

⁵⁷I will make her princes and wise men drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and not wake up,” declares the King, whose name is the Lord of Hosts.

¹⁸For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets, which roll upward in billows of smoke.

⁹Whatever you plot against the Lord, He will bring to an end. Affliction will not rise up a second time.

⁷Then worthless and wicked men gathered around him to resist Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young, inexperienced, and unable to resist them.

¹²Now the sons of Eli were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord

³⁰Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’

¹⁵So now, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, and do not let him mislead you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to deliver his people from my hand or from the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God deliver you from my hand!”

¹⁶And the servants of Sennacherib spoke further against the Lord God and against His servant Hezekiah.

⁷But this is not his intention; this is not his plan. For it is in his heart to destroy and cut off many nations.

⁸“Are not all my commanders kings?” he says.

¹⁹And the Lord answered His people: “Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and by them you will be satisfied. I will never again make you a reproach among the nations.

¹⁹O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious when you cry for help; when He hears, He will answer you.

¹⁴In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.

²⁰On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates—the king of Assyria—to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to remove your beard as well.

³⁶Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

⁸“Then Assyria will fall, but not by the sword of man; a sword will devour them, but not one made by mortals. They will flee before the sword, and their young men will be put to forced labor.

²⁷On that day the burden will be lifted from your shoulders, and the yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large.

⁴For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.

²⁰“For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.

²⁵I will break Assyria in My land; I will trample him on My mountain. His yoke will be taken off My people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.”

¹⁴He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke away their chains.

⁵I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the Lord, the justice of their God.” But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke and torn off the chains.

¹³May his descendants be cut off; may their name be blotted out from the next generation.

¹³I will also cut off the carved images and sacred pillars from among you, so that you will no longer bow down to the work of your own hands.

⁷The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.

¹Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.

²The gods cower; they crouch together, unable to relieve the burden; but they themselves go into captivity.

²²Assyria is there with her whole company; her graves are all around her. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword.

²³Her graves are set in the depths of the Pit, and her company is all around her grave. All of them are slain, fallen by the sword—those who once spread terror in the land of the living.

³⁷One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer put him to the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. And his son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

⁷How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

¹⁵And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

⁹Go up on a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. Raise your voice loudly, O Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

¹⁰Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and His arm establishes His rule. His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him.

³⁶He has sent this message to the people of Israel, proclaiming the gospel of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

⁷All the many nations going out to battle against Ariel—even all who war against her, laying siege and attacking her—will be like a dream, like a vision in the night,

⁸as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, then awakens still hungry; as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, then awakens faint and parched. So will it be for all the many nations who go to battle against Mount Zion.

¹¹From you, O Nineveh, comes forth a plotter of evil against the Lord, a counselor of wickedness.

¹²This is what the Lord says: “Though they are allied and numerous, yet they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, O Judah, I will afflict you no longer.