1.1 The burden of Nineve: the book of the vision of Naum the Elkesite.
1.2 God is jealous, and the Lord avenges; the
Lord avenges with wrath; the Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries,
and he cuts off his enemies.
1.3 The Lord is long-suffering, and his power
is great, and the Lord will not hold any guiltless: his way is in
destruction and in the whirlwind, and the clouds are the dust of his
feet.
1.4 He threatens the sea, and dries it up, and
exhausts all the rivers: the land of Basan, and Carmel are brought low,
and the flourishing [trees] of Libanus have come to nought.
1.5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills
are shaken, and the earth recoils at his presence, [even] the world,
and all that dwell in it.
1.6 Who shall stand before his anger? and who
shall withstand in the anger of his wrath? his wrath brings to nought
kingdoms, and the rocks are burst asunder by him.
1.7 The Lord is good to them that wait on him
in the day of affliction; and he knows them that reverence him.
1.8 But with an overrunning flood he will make
an utter end: darkness shall pursue those that rise up against [him]
and his enemies.
1.9 What do ye devise against the Lord? he will
make a complete end: he will not take vengeance by affliction twice at
the same time.
1.10 For [the enemy] shall be laid bare even to the
foundation, and shall be devoured as twisted yew, and as stubble fully
dry.
1.11 Out of thee shall proceed a device against the Lord, counselling evil things hostile [to him].
1.12 Thus saith the Lord who rules over many waters,
Even thus shall they be sent away, and the report of thee shall not be
heard any more.
1.13 And now will I break his rod from off thee, and will burst [thy] bonds.
1.14 And the Lord shall give a command concerning
thee; there shall no more of thy name be scattered: I will utterly
destroy the graven [images] out of the house of thy god, and the molten
[images]: I will make thy grave; for [they are] swift.
1.15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that
brings glad tidings, and publishes peace! O Juda, keep thy feasts, pay
thy vows: for they shall no more pass through thee to [thy] decay.
2.1
It is all over with him, he has been removed, [one] who has been
delivered from affliction has come up panting into thy presence, watch
the way, strengthen [thy] loins, be very valiant in [thy] strength.
2.2 For the Lord has turned aside the pride of
Jacob, as the pride of Israel: for they have utterly rejected them, and
have destroyed their branches.
2.3 [They have destroyed] the arms of their
power from among men, their mighty men sporting with fire: the reins of
their chariots [shall be destroyed] in the day of his preparation, and
the horsemen shall be thrown into confusion
2.4 in the ways, and the chariots shall clash
together, and shall be entangled in each other in the broad ways: their
appearance is as lamps of fire, and as gleaming lightnings.
2.5 And their mighty men shall bethink
themselves and flee by day; and they shall be weak as they go; and they
shall hasten to her walls, and shall prepare their defences.
2.6 The gates of the cities have been opened, and the palaces have fallen into ruin,
2.7 and the foundation has been exposed; and
she has gone up, and her maid-servants were led [away] as doves moaning
in their hearts.
2.8 And [as for] Nineve, her waters [shall be]
as a pool of water: and they fled, and staid not, and there was none to
look back.
2.9 They plundered the silver, they plundered
the gold, and there was no end of their adorning; they were loaded
[with it] upon all their pleasant vessels.
2.10 [There is] thrusting forth, and shaking, and
tumult, and heart-breaking, and loosing of knees, and pangs on all
loins; and the faces of all [are] as the blackening of a pot.
2.11 Where is the dwelling-place of the lions, and
the pasture that belonged to the whelps? where did the lion go, that
the lion's whelp should enter in there, and there was none to scare
[him] away?
2.12 The lion seized enough prey for his whelps, and
strangled for his [young] lions, and filled his lair with prey, and his
dwelling-place with spoil.
2.13 Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord
Almighty, and I will burn up thy multitude in the smoke, and the sword
shall devour thy lions; and I will utterly destroy thy prey from off
the land, and thy deeds shall no more at all be heard of.
3.1 O city of blood, wholly false, full of unrighteousness; the prey shall not be handled.
3.2 The noise of whips, and the noise of the
rumbling of wheels, and of the pursuing horse, and of the bounding
chariot,
3.3 and of the mounting rider, and of the
glittering sword, and of the gleaming arms, and of a multitude of
slain, and of heavy falling: and there was no end to her nations, but
they shall be weak in their bodies
3.4 because of the abundance of fornication:
[she is] a fair harlot, and well-favoured, skilled in sorcery, that
sells the nations by her fornication, and peoples by her sorceries.
3.5 Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord
God Almighty, and I will uncover thy skirts in thy presence, and I will
shew the nations thy shame, and the kingdoms thy disgrace.
3.6 And I will cast abominable filth upon thee
according to thine unclean ways, and will make thee a public example.
3.7 And it shall be [that] every one that sees
thee shall go down from thee, and shall say, Wretched Nineve! who shall
lament for her? whence shall I seek comfort for her?
3.8 Prepare thee a portion, tune the chord,
prepare a portion for Ammon: she that dwells among the rivers, water is
round about her, whose dominion is the sea, and whose walls are water.
3.9 And Ethiopia is her strength, and Egypt;
and there was no limit of the flight [of her enemies]; and the Libyans
became her helpers.
3.10 Yet she shall go as a prisoner into captivity,
and they shall dash her infants against the ground at the top of all
her ways: and they shall cast lots upon all her glorious [possessions],
and all her nobles shall be bound in chains.
3.11 And thou shalt be drunken, and shalt be
overlooked; and thou shalt seek for thyself strength because of [thine]
enemies.
3.12 All thy strong-holds are as fig-trees having
watchers: if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth of the
eater.
3.13 Behold, thy people within thee are as women: the
gates of thy land shall surely be opened to thine enemies: the fire
shall devour thy bars.
3.14 Draw thee water for a siege, and well secure thy
strong-holds: enter into the clay, and be thou trodden in the chaff,
make [the fortifications] stronger than brick.
3.15 There the fire shall devour thee; the sword
shall utterly destroy thee, it shall devour thee as the locust, and
thou shalt be pressed down as a palmerworm.
3.16 Thou hast multiplied thy merchandise beyond the
stars of heaven: the palmerworm has attacked [it], and has flown away.
3.17 Thy mixed [multitude] has suddenly departed as
the grasshopper, as the locust perched on a hedge in a frosty day; the
sun arises, and it flies off, and knows not its place: woe to them!
3.18 Thy shepherds have slumbered, the Assyrian king
has laid low thy mighty men: thy people departed to the mountains, and
there was none to receive [them].
3.19 There is no healing for thy bruise; thy wound
has rankled: all that hear the report of thee shall clap their hands
against thee; for upon whom has not thy wickedness passed continually?