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 Chapter 1
1:1 The burden of Nineve: the book of
the vision of Naum the Elkesite.
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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
7 The Lord is good to them that wait on
him in the day of affliction; and he knows them that reverence him.
8 But with an overrunning flood he will
make an utter end: darkness shall pursue those that rise up against him
and his enemies. 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. 10
For the enemy shall be laid bare even to the foundation,
and shall be devoured as twisted yew, and as stubble fully dry.
11 Out of thee shall proceed a device
against the Lord, counselling evil things hostile to him.
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. 13 And now will I
break his rod from off thee, and will burst thy bonds.
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.
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.
Chapter 2
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 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. 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
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.
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. 6
The gates of the cities have been opened, and the palaces
have fallen into ruin, 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. 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.
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. 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.
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? 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.
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.
Chapter 3
3:1 O city of blood, wholly false, full
of unrighteousness; the prey shall not be handled. 2
The noise of whips, and the noise of the rumbling of
wheels, and of the pursuing horse, and of the bounding chariot,
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 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.
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.
6 And I will cast abominable filth upon
thee according to thine unclean ways, and will make thee a public example.
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?
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.
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. 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.
11 And thou shalt be drunken, and shalt be
overlooked; and thou shalt seek for thyself strength because of thine
enemies. 12 All thy strong-holds are
as fig-trees having watchers: if they be shaken, they shall fall into the mouth
of the eater. 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.
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. 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. 16 Thou hast
multiplied thy merchandise beyond the stars of heaven: the palmerworm has
attacked it, and has flown away. 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!
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.
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? |
