The Holy Bible, containing the Old & New Testament & the Apocrypha/Volume 2/Nahum
NAHUM
The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
- GOD is jealous, and the Lord revengeth;
- The Lord revengeth, and is furious;
- The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries,
- And he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
- The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power,
- And will not at all acquit the wicked:
- The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm,
- And the clouds are the dust of his feet.
- He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry,
- And drieth up all the rivers:
- Bashan languisheth, and Carmel,
- And the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
- The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt,
- And the earth is burned at his presence,
- Yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.
- Who can stand before his indignation?
- And who can abide in the fierceness of his anger?
- His fury is poured out like fire,
- And the rocks are thrown down by him.
- The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble;
- And he knoweth them that trust in him.
- But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof,
- And darkness shall pursue his enemies.
- What do ye imagine against the Lord?
- He will make an utter end:
- Affliction shall not rise up the second time.
- For while they be folden together as thorns,
- And while they are drunken as drunkards,
- They shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.
- There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord,
- A wicked counsellor.
- Thus saith the Lord;
- Though they be quiet, and likewise many,
- Yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through.
- Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.
- For now will I break his yoke from off thee,
- And will burst thy bonds in sunder.
- And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee,
- That no more of thy name be sown:
- Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image:
- I will make thy grave; for thou art vile.
- Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!
- O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows:
- For the wicked shall no more pass through thee;
- He is utterly cut off.
- He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face:
- Keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.
- For the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob,
- As the excellency of Israel:
- For the emptiers have emptied them out,
- And marred their vine branches.
- The shield of his mighty men is made red,
- The valiant men are in scarlet:
- The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation,
- And the fir trees shall be terribly shaken.
- The chariots shall rage in the streets,
- They shall justle one against another in the broad ways:
- They shall seem like torches,
- They shall run like the lightnings.
- He shall recount his worthies:
- They shall stumble in their walk;
- They shall make haste to the wall thereof,
- And the defence shall be prepared.
- The gates of the rivers shall be opened,
- And the palace shall be dissolved.
- And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up,
- And her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves,
- Tabering upon their breasts.
- But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water:
- Yet they shall flee away.
- Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back.
- Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold:
- For there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture.
- She is empty, and void, and waste:
- And the heart melteth, and the knees smite together,
- And much pain is in all loins,
- And the faces of them all gather blackness.
- Where is the dwelling of the lions,
- And the feedingplace of the young lions,
- Where the lion, even the old lion, walked,
- And the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?
- The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps,
- And strangled for his lionesses,
- And filled his holes with prey,
- And his dens with ravin.
- Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts,
- And I will burn her chariots in the smoke,
- And the sword shall devour thy young lions:
- And I will cut off thy prey from the earth,
- And the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.
"ART THOU BETTER THAN POPULOUS NO, THAT WAS SITUATE AMONG THE RIVERS. . . . . . . YET WAS SHE CARRIED AWAY."—Nahum iii.
- Woe to the bloody city!
- It is all full of lies and robbery;
- The prey departeth not;
- The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels,
- And of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.
- The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear:
- And there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases;
- And there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:
- Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot,
- The mistress of witchcrafts,
- That selleth nations through her whoredoms,
- And families through her witchcrafts.
- Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts;
- And I will discover thy skirts upon thy face,
- And I will shew the nations thy nakedness,
- And the kingdoms thy shame.
- And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile,
- And will set thee as a gazingstock.
- And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say,
- Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her?
- Whence shall I seek comforters for thee?
- Art thou better than populous No,
- That was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it,
- Whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?
- Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite;
- Put and Lubim were thy helpers.
- Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity:
- Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets:
- And they cast lots for her honourable men,
- And all her great men were bound in chains.
- Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid,
- Thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy.
- All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs:
- If they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater.
- Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women:
- The gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies:
- The fire shall devour thy bars.
- Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds:
- Go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln.
- There shall the fire devour thee;
- The sword shall cut thee off,
- It shall eat thee up like the cankerworm:
- Make thyself many as the cankerworm,
- Make thyself many as the locusts.
- Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven:
- The cankerworm spoileth, and fleeth away.
- Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers,
- Which camp in the hedges in the cold day,
- But when the sun ariseth they flee away,
- And their place is not known where they are.
- Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust:
- Thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.
- There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous:
- All that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee:
- For upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?