1A receipt for Nineveh. A document of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite. 2 God is a zealot, and an avenging Lord with wrath; the Lord is avenging his opposers, and he is lifting up his enemy. 3 The Lord is longsuffering, and his strength is great, and the Lord will not hold the guiltless innocent. His way is in consummation and commotion, and clouds are the dust of his feet. 4 He is threatening the sea and drying it up, and making desolate all the rivers. The Bashan and the Carmel were diminished, and the blooming flowers of Lebanon came to an end. 5 The mountains quaked from him, and the hills were shaken, and the earth was removed from his face, the whole of it, and all dwelling in it. 6 Who will withstand from the face of his wrath? And who will stand against his wrathful anger? His wrath consumes authorities, and the rocks were broken by him. 7 The Lord is good to those awaiting him in the day of affliction, and he knows those who reverence him. 8 And by a deluge of a way, he will make an end of those rising up against him, and darkness will pursue his enemies. 9 What are you reckoning against the Lord? He will make for himself an end. He will not avenge twice for the same thing with affliction, 10 because he will be made dry as far as his foundation, and will be eaten like twisted bindweed and like fully dried stubble. 11 A reasoning will come out of you against the Lord, planning adverse evils. 12 This says the Lord, who rules many waters, “And thus they will be sent away, and news of you shall not be heard any longer. 13 And now I will break his rod from you, and cleave your bonds.” 14 And the Lord gives a command on behalf of you, “It will not be scattered from your name any longer. From the house of your God I will utterly destroy the carved things and molten things; I will make your grave, because you are hasty.”[1]
2Behold, upon the mountains are the feet of one proclaiming good news and announcing peace. Celebrate your feasts, O Judah! Restore your vows! Because they will not add any longer to pass through you until your old age. 2 It is completed; it is carried away. 2 He went up, breathing into your face, delivering from affliction. Watch the road. Strengthen your loins. Play the man with very much strength. 3 Because the Lord has returned the pride of Jacob, just as the pride of Israel, because shaking they shook them and their branches. 4 their weapons of power from humans, mighty men mocking in fire. The reins of their chariots in a day of his preparation, and horsemen will be confused 5 on the roads. And the chariots will be confounded and entangled in the streets. Their appearance will be like torches of fire and like running lightning. 6 And their nobles will remember and flee by day, and they will fall sick on their journey, and hasten toward its walls and prepare their sentinels. 7 Gates of the city will be opened, and the palaces will crumble in pieces. 8 And the foundation was uncovered, and this was going up, and its servants were being led, uttering sounds like doves in their hearts. 9 And Nineveh, her water is like a cistern of water, and they were fleeing, not stopped, and there was not one who was looking on. 10 They plundered the silver; they plundered the gold. And there was no end of her ornamentation. They were weighed down with all the vessels of her desires. 11 There is shaking out, violent shaking, trembling, a breaking of a heart, a loosing of the knees, and pains of childbirth on all loins, and the face of all is like the blackening of an earthen pot. 12 Where is the dwelling place of the lions, and the pasture that exists for the cubs, where the lion goes to enter there, a cub of a lion, and there was not one who frightens them? 13 A lion has seized enough for his cubs, and has choked for his lions, and has filled his lair with prey, and his dwelling place with spoil. 14 “Behold, I am against you,” says the Lord Almighty. “And I will kindle your abundance in smoke, and a sword will devour your lions, and I will utterly destroy your prey from the land, and your works will no longer be heard.”
3O city of bloodshed, entirely lying, full of injustice, prey will not be grasped after. 2 A sound of whips, and a sound of the shaking of wheels, and of a horse pursuing, and of a chariot seething, 3 and of a horseman going up, and of a glistening of a sword, and of a flashing of weapons, and of a throng of casualties, and of a heavy destruction, and there was no end for her nations, and they will be weak in their bodies from the abundance of fornication. 4 Beautiful and gratifying prostitute, leader of sorcerers. she who sells nations with her fornication, and people by her sorcerers. 5 “Behold, I am against you,” says the Lord God Almighty, “and I will reveal the things behind you to your face, and I will display to nations your shame, and to kingdoms your dishonor. 6 And I will cast against you an abomination, in accordance with your impurities, and I will make you into an example. 7 And it will be, that everyone who sees you will go down from you and say, ‘Wretched Nineveh, who will lament her? From where will I seek comfort for her?’” 8 Prepare a portion to tune a string, prepare a portion, O Amon; who dwells among rivers; water is around her, whose empire is the sea, and water her walls. 9 And her strength is Ethiopia and Egypt, and there is no end of the flight! Even Libyans have become her helpers. 10 And she will go into deportation a captive. And her children will be dashed to the ground at the beginning of all her roads. And they will cast lots for all her glorious things, and all her great men will be bound with handcuffs. 11 And you will be drunk, and you will be disregarded, and you will seek for yourself a position from your enemies. 12 All your strongholds are fig trees having watchmen; if they are shaken, they will fall into the mouth of the eater. 13 Behold, your people are like women among you. Opening, the gates of your land will be opened to your enemies; fire will devour your bars. 14 Draw for yourself water for a siege, and strengthen your strongholds; step onto clay, and trample on chaff; make it more strong than brick. 15 There fire will devour you; a large sword will utterly destroy you. It will devour you like a locust, and you will be heavy like the locust. 16 You have increased your trade above the stars of heaven; the locust hastens on and spreads out. 17 Your mixed people leapt like a locust, like a locust going upon a fence in the day of frost; the sun arose and it leaped off, and did not know its place. Woe to them! 18 Your shepherds napped. The king of Assyria put your mighty men to sleep. Your people departed to the mountains, and there was no one awaiting. 19 There is no remedy for your bruise; your wound has festered. All who hear the news of you will clap hands against you, because upon whom has not your evil always come?