NAHUM
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An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of
Nahum of Elkosh. 2 A jealous and avenging God is the LORD, the LORD is avenging
and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his
enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger but great in power, and the LORD will by no
means clear the guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are
the dust of his feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and he dries up all
the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither, and the bloom of Lebanon fades. 5 The
mountains quake before him, and the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the
world and all who live in it. 6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can
endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and by him the
rocks are broken in pieces. 7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in a day of
trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him, 8 even in a rushing flood. He
will make a full end of his adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into
darkness. 9 Why do you plot against the LORD? He will make an end; no adversary
will rise up twice. 10 Like thorns they are entangled, like drunkards they are
drunk; they are consumed like dry straw. 11 From you one has gone out who plots
evil against the LORD, who counsels wickedness. 12 Thus says the LORD, "Though
they are at full strength and many, they will be cut off and pass away. Though I
have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. 13 And now I will break off his
yoke from you and snap the bonds that bind you." 14 The LORD has commanded
concerning you: "Your name shall be perpetuated no longer; from the house of
your gods I will cut off the carved image and the cast image. I will make your
grave, for you are worthless." 15 Look! On the mountains the feet of one who
brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, O Judah,
fulfill your vows, for never again shall the wicked invade you; they are utterly
cut off.
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A shatterer has come up against you. Guard the ramparts; watch the
road; gird your loins; collect all your strength. 2 (For the LORD is restoring
the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, though ravagers have
ravaged them and ruined their branches.) 3 The shields of his warriors are red;
his soldiers are clothed in crimson. The metal on the chariots flashes on the
day when he musters them; the chargers prance. 4 The chariots race madly through
the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; their appearance is like
torches, they dart like lightning. 5 He calls his officers; they stumble as they
come forward; they hasten to the wall, and the mantelet is set up. 6 The river
gates are opened, the palace trembles. 7 It is decreed that the city be exiled,
its slave women led away, moaning like doves and beating their breasts. 8
Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. "Halt! Halt!"-- but no one turns
back. 9 "Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of treasure! An
abundance of every precious thing!" 10 Devastation, desolation, and destruction!
Hearts faint and knees tremble, all loins quake, all faces grow pale! 11 What
became of the lions' den, the cave of the young lions, where the lion goes, and
the lion's cubs, with no one to disturb them? 12 The lion has torn enough for
his whelps and strangled prey for his lionesses; he has filled his caves with
prey and his dens with torn flesh. 13 See, I am against you, says the LORD of
hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your
young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your
messengers shall be heard no more.
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Ah! City of bloodshed, utterly deceitful, full of booty-- no end to
the plunder! 2 The crack of whip and rumble of wheel, galloping horse and
bounding chariot! 3 Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear,
piles of dead, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end-- they stumble over the
bodies! 4 Because of the countless debaucheries of the prostitute, gracefully
alluring, mistress of sorcery, who enslaves nations through her debaucheries,
and peoples through her sorcery, 5 I am against you, says the LORD of hosts, and
will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will let nations look on your
nakedness and kingdoms on your shame. 6 I will throw filth at you and treat you
with contempt, and make you a spectacle. 7 Then all who see you will shrink from
you and say, "Nineveh is devastated; who will bemoan her?" Where shall I seek
comforters for you? 8 Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with
water around her, her rampart a sea, water her wall? 9 Ethiopia was her
strength, Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her
helpers. 10 Yet she became an exile, she went into captivity; even her infants
were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; lots were cast for her
nobles, all her dignitaries were bound in fetters. 11 You also will be drunken,
you will go into hiding; you will seek a refuge from the enemy. 12 All your
fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs-- if shaken they fall into
the mouth of the eater. 13 Look at your troops: they are women in your midst.
The gates of your land are wide open to your foes; fire has devoured the bars of
your gates. 14 Draw water for the siege, strengthen your forts; trample the
clay, tread the mortar, take hold of the brick mold! 15 There the fire will
devour you, the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust, multiply like the grasshopper! 16 You
increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust sheds
its skin and flies away. 17 Your guards are like grasshoppers, your scribes like
swarms of locusts settling on the fences on a cold day-- when the sun rises,
they fly away; no one knows where they have gone. 18 Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the
mountains with no one to gather them. 19 There is no assuaging your hurt, your
wound is mortal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For
who has ever escaped your endless cruelty?
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