THE BOOK OF NAHUM

CHAPTER 1

THE burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

2 Elohim is jealous, and Yahowah revengeth; Yahowah revengeth, and is furious; Yahowah will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

3 Yahowah is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: Yahowah has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4 He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.

5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.

6 Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.

7 Yahowah is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

8 But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness will pursue his enemies.

9 What do You imagine against Yahowah? he will make an utter end: affliction will not rise up the second time.

10 For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they will be devoured as stubble fully dry.

11 There is one come out of you, that imagineth evil against Yahowah, a wicked counseller.

12 Thus says Yahowah; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus will they be cut down, when he will pass through. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

13 For now will I break his yoke from off you, and will burst Your bonds in sunder.

14 And Yahowah has given a commandment concerning you, that no more of Your name be sown: out of the house of Your gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make Your grave; for you are vile.

15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep Your solemn feasts, perform Your vows: for the wicked will no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off.

CHAPTER 2

HE that dasheth in pieces is come up before Your face: keep the munition, watch the way, make Your loins strong, fortify Your power mightily.

2 For Yahowah has turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.

3 The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots will be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees will be terribly shaken.

4 The chariots will rage in the streets, they will justle one against another in the broad ways: they will seem like torches, they will run like the lightnings.

5 He will recount his worthies: they will stumble in their walk; they will make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence will be prepared.

6 The gates of the rivers will be opened, and the palace will be dissolved.

7 And Huzzab will be led away captive, she will be brought up, and her maids will lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.

8 But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they will flee away. Stand, stand, will they cry; but none will look back.

9 Take You the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture.

10 She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness.

11 Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feedingplace of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?

12 The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.

13 Behold, I am against you, says Yahowah of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword will devour Your young lions: and I will cut off Your prey from the earth, and the voice of Your messengers will no more be heard.

CHAPTER 3

WOE to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;

2 The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.

3 The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:

4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.

5 Behold, I am against you, says Yahowah of hosts; and I will discover Your skirts upon Your face, and I will shew the nations Your nakedness, and the kingdoms Your shame.

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

7 And it will come to pass, that all they that look upon you will flee from you, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? which will I seek comforters for you?

8 Art you better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?

9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were Your helpers.

10 Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, and all her great men were bound in chains.

11 You also will be drunken: you will be hid, you also will seek strength because of the enemy.

12 All Your strong holds will be like fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they will even fall into the mouth of the eater.

13 Behold, Your people in the midst of you are women: the gates of Your land will be set wide open unto yours enemies: the fire will devour Your bars.

14 Draw you waters for the siege, fortify Your strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln.

15 There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off, it will eat you up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.

16 You have multiplied Your merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.

17 Thy crowned are as the locusts, and Your captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

18 Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: Your nobles will dwell in the dust: Your people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.

19 There is no healing of Your bruise; Your wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of you will clap the hands over you: for upon whom has not Your wickedness passed continually?