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1An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.
6Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken asunder by him.
7Yahweh is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
8But with an overflowing flood
he will make a full end of his adversaries,
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
9What do you plot against Yahweh?
He will make a full end;
he will not take vengeance twice on his foes.
10Like entangled thorns
they are consumed,
like dry stubble.
11Did one not come out from you,
who plotted evil against Yahweh,
and counseled villainy?
12Thus says Yahweh,
"Though they be strong and many,
they will be cut off and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.
13And now I will break his yoke from off you
and will burst your bonds asunder."
14Yahweh has given commandment about you:
"No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods
I will cut off the graven image
and the molten image.
I will make your grave,
for you are vile."
15Behold, on the mountains the feet of him
who brings good tidings,
who proclaims peace!
Keep your feast, O Judah,
fulfil your vows,
for never again shall the wicked come against you,
he is utterly cut off.
2(For Yahweh is restoring the majesty of Jacob
as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have stripped them
and ruined their branches.)
3The shield of his mighty men is red,
his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots flash like flame
when mustered in array;
the chargers prance.
4The chariots rage in the streets,
they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches,
they dart like lightning.
5The officers are summoned,
they stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall,
the mantelet is set up.
6The river gates are opened,
the palace is in dismay;
7its mistress is stripped,
she is carried off,
her maidens lamenting,
moaning like doves,
and beating their breasts.
8Nineveh is like a pool
whose waters run away.
"Halt1 Halt!" they cry;
but none turns back.
9Plunder the silver,
plunder the gold!
There is no end of treasure,
or wealth of every precious thing.
10Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
Hearts faint and knees tremble,
anguish is on all loins,
all faces grow pale!
11Where is the lions' den,
the cave of the young lions,
where the lion brought his prey,
where his cubs were,
with none to disturb?
12The lion tore enough for his welps
and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh. 13Behold, I am against you, says Yahweh 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 no more heard. 1Woe to the bloody city,
all full of lies and booty -
no end to the plunder!
2The crack of whip,
and rumble of wheel,
galloping horse
and bounding chariot!
3Horsemen charging,
flashing sword
and glittering spear,
hosts of slain,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end -
they stumble over the bodies!
4And all for the countless harlotries of the harlot,
graceful and of deadly charms,
who betrays nations with her harlotries,
and peoples with her charms.
5Behold, I am against you,
says Yahweh 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.
6I will throw filth at you
and treat you with contempt,
and make you a gazing-stock.
7And all who look on you will shrink from you and say,
Wasted is Nineveh; who will bemoan her?
whence shall I seek comforters for her?
8Are you better than Thebes
that sat by the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
and water her wall?
9Ethiopia was her strength,
Egypt too, and that without limit;
Put and the Libyans were her helpers.
10Yet she was carried away,
she went into captivity;
her little ones were dashed in pieces
at the head of every street;
for her honoured men lots were cast,
and all her great men were bound in chains.
11You also will be drunken,
you will be dazed;
you will seek
a refuge from the enemy.
12All your fortresses are like fig trees
with first-ripe figs -
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
13Behold, your troops
are women in your midst.
The gates of your land
are wide open to your foes;
fire has devoured your bars.
14Draw water for the siege,
strengthen your forts;
go into the clay,
tread the mortar,
take hold of the brick mold!
15There will the fire devour you,
the sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust,
multiply like the grasshopper!
16You increased your merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
17Your princes are like grasshoppers,
your scribes like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences
in a day of cold -
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they are.
18Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria;
your nobles slumber.
Your people are scattered on the mountains
with none to gather them.
19There is no assuaging your hurt,
your wound is grievous.
All who hear the news of you
clap their hands over you.
For upon whom has not come
your unceasing evil?