Nahum 1-3

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

His way is in whirlwind and storm,
    and the clouds are the dust of his feet.^(C)
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.^(D)

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.^(E)
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^[a]
    and will pursue his enemies into darkness.^(F)
9 Why do you plot against the Lord?
    He will make an end;
    no adversary will rise up twice.^(G)
10 Like thorns they are entangled;
    like drunkards they are drunk;
    they are consumed like dry straw.^(H)
11 From you one has gone out
    who plots evil against the Lord,
    one who counsels wickedness.^(I)

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 prepare your grave, for you are worthless.^(L)

^15 [c]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.^(M)

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.)^(O)

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^[d] prance.^(P)
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.^(Q)
5 He calls his officers;
    they stumble as they come forward;
they hasten to the wall,
    and the screen^[e] is set up.
⁶ The river gates are opened;
    the palace trembles.
⁷ It is decreed^[f] that the city^[g] be exiled,
    its slave women led away,
moaning like doves
    and beating their breasts.^(R)
8 Nineveh is like a pool
    whose waters^[h] run away.
“Halt! Halt!”—
    but no one turns back.^(S)
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!^(T)
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?^(U)
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.^(V)

⁸ Are you better than Thebes^[k]
    that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
    her rampart a sea,
    water her wall?^(AE)
9 Cush was her strength,
    Egypt, too, and that without limit;
    Put and the Libyans were her^[l] helpers.^(AF)

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.^(AG)
11 You also will be drunken;
    you will go into hiding;^[m]
you will seek
    a refuge from the enemy.^(AH)
12 All your fortresses are like fig trees
    with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
    into the mouth of the eater.^(AI)
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.^(AJ)

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!^(AK)
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^[n] 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.^(AL)
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?^(AM)