Chapter 1
Title.1 This is an oracle about Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.[a]
The Fury of God[b]
In the Face of His Ardent Anger, Who Could Resist Him?[c]
Chapter 1
Title. This is an oracle about Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.[d]
The Fury of God[e]
In the Face of His Ardent Anger, Who Could Resist Him?[f]
2 The Lord is a jealous God
who does not hesitate to wreak vengeance
or to show his anger.
The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and stores up wrath against his enemies.
3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,
and he will never allow the guilty
to escape punishment.
He makes his way in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust beneath his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and leaves it dry,
and he dries up all the rivers.
Bashan and Carmel wither,
and the greenery of Lebanon fades.[g]
5 The mountains quake before him,
and the hills dissolve;
the earth collapses before him,
the world and all who live in it.
6 When confronted by his anger,
who can stand firm?
Who can endure his burning wrath?
His fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are shattered before him.
7 The Lord is good,
an unfailing refuge in a time of distress.
He takes care of those who place their trust in him,
8 even if they are in peril from a raging flood.
He will make an end of those who oppose him,
and he will pursue his enemies into darkness.
They Will Be Wasted Like Dry Straw[h]
9 Why do you devise plots against the Lord?
He will make an end of you.
None of his adversaries rise up to confront him
for a second time.
10 Like a thicket of thornbushes, they are entangled;
like dry straw they will be utterly consumed.
11 From your number, one has emerged
who plots evil against the Lord
and counsels wickedness.
12 Thus says the Lord:
No matter how numerous they are,
no matter how great their strength,
they will be cut down and pass away.
Even though I have afflicted you,
I will make you suffer no more.
13 Now I will break off their yoke from your neck
and snap the shackles that bind you.
14 In regard to you, Nineveh,
the Lord has decreed
that no more descendants will be born
to perpetuate your name.
I will remove carved images and sculpted idols
from the temple of your gods.
And I will prepare your grave,
for you are worthless.
Footnotes
- Nahum 1:1 Elkosh was probably a place in Judea. This verse tells us what the subject of the Book is to be.
- Nahum 1:1 The faith of Israel judges these events differently from the way secular historians do through the sudden leaps of history; it is the project of salvation of God that is accomplished: it is he who destroys Nineveh. Thus, before describing the unfolding of facts, the Book raises this drama to the level of a great manifestation of God, who brings back order and justice into the universe of men.
- Nahum 1:1 One must let himself be carried away by the force of this triumphal psalm, which proclaims the victory of the All-Powerful whom no one can resist. Nevertheless, this terrible God leans toward the wicked.
- Nahum 1:2 Elkosh was probably a place in Judea. This verse tells us what the subject of the Book is to be.
- Nahum 1:2 The faith of Israel judges these events differently from the way secular historians do through the sudden leaps of history; it is the project of salvation of God that is accomplished: it is he who destroys Nineveh. Thus, before describing the unfolding of facts, the Book raises this drama to the level of a great manifestation of God, who brings back order and justice into the universe of men.
- Nahum 1:2 One must let himself be carried away by the force of this triumphal psalm, which proclaims the victory of the All-Powerful whom no one can resist. Nevertheless, this terrible God leans toward the wicked.
- Nahum 1:4 The places named were places of classic opulence.
- Nahum 1:9 Master of the world, the Lord is also Master of history. He acts as the arbitrator of his oppressed people and Assyria, which incarnates the powers of evil: the first shall be liberated and the second shall be destroyed. Belial (“is worth nothing”), a term of scorn often assigned to an infernal power, fits very well upon Sennacherib, of sinister memory (see 2 Ki 18:19). If the God of the Bible appears to us often as one of chastisement, he is first of all the God of liberation.