The Book of Nahum

Chapter 1
1 The load of Nineveh; the scroll of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2 An El, jealous and avenging, is Yahweh; An avenger is Yahweh, and possessor of fury; An avenger is Yahweh against His foes, And a transporter is He of His enemies.
3 Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in vigor, And He shall not hold innocent, nay hold innocent. Yahweh has His way in the sweeping whirlwind and in the hurricane. And clouds are the dust of His feet.
4 He is rebuking the sea and drying it up, And all the streams He drains. Wasted away is Bashan and Carmel, And the bud of Lebanon,it is wasted away.
5 The mountains, they quake because of Him, And the hills, they dissolve, The earth is decimated because of His presence, And the habitance and all dwelling in it.
6 Before His indignation, who shall stand? And who shall rise in the heat of His anger? His fury, it is poured forth like fire, And the rocks, they are broken down because of Him.
7 Yahweh is good to those who are stretching out toward Him, A Stronghold in the day of distress, And He is knowing those taking refuge in Him.
8 And with a surpassing overflow He shall make a finish of her place, And His enemies shall He pursue into darkness.
9 What are you devising against Yahweh? He will make a finish; Distress shall not rise a second time.
10 Though they are as entangled briars, And as those groggy with their strong wine, They will be devoured like stubble fully dry.
11 From you has gone forth one devising evil against Yahweh, A decadent counselor.
12 Thus says Yahweh: Though they are faring well and thus are numerous, Even so, they will be shorn, and he will pass away. Though I humbled you, I shall not humble you further.
13 And now I shall break his yoke-bar off you, And your bonds shall I pull away.
14 And Yahweh enjoins concerning you: No longer shall your name be perpetuated. From the house of your elohim shall I cut off carving and molten image. I shall set up your tomb, for you are slight.
15 Behold on the mountains, the feet of a tidings-bearer announcing peace! Celebrate, Judah, your festivals! Pay your vows! For the decadent one shall not continue further to pass through you; He will be altogether cut off.

Chapter 2
1 The scatterer comes up against your face; Preserve the siege work; Watch the way. Make your waist steadfast; Make your vigor exceedingly resolute.
2 For Yahweh will restore the augustness of Jacob, As the augustness of Israel, Though the voiders have voided them, And ruined their pruned slips.
3 The shield of his masters of war are reddened; The men of valor are clad in crimson. With the fiery flash of hub-blades is the chariot, in the day of its preparation, And the steeds are made to shiver.
4 In the streets the chariots are raving; They are prowling in the squares. Their appearance is like flaming torches; Like lightning are they running.
5 He is remembering his nobles; They are stumbling in their going; They are hastening to her wall, And the mantelet is prepared.
6 The sluicegates of the streams, they are opened, And the palace, it is dissolved;
7 It is set that she will be deported; She will be taken away, Her maidservants moaning Like the sound of doves, Tambourining on their heart.
8 Nineveh was like a reservoir of water from her days of old; Now they are fleeing. Stand! Stand! Yet there is no one turning around.
9 Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! There is no end to her established treasures, The glory of all her coveted vessels.
10 Void and voided and evacuated, And the heart, it is melted, And a quavering of the knees, And a sore travail in all waists, And the faces of them all draw together in ashy paleness!
11 Where is the habitation of the lions, And the feeding place, that of the sheltered lions, Where the lion goes, the parent lion, And the whelp of the lioness, And nothing causes them to tremble?
12 The lion is tearing to pieces sufficient for his whelps, And is strangling for his lionesses. He is filling his holes with prey, And his habitations with flesh torn to pieces.
13 Behold Me against you, averring is Yahweh of hosts; I consume her chariots in smoke, And your sheltered lions, the sword shall devour. I cut off your prey from the earth, And the voice of your messengers is no longer heard.

Chapter 3
1 Woe, city of bloodsheds! All of it is dissimulation! Full of marauding! Preying never is suspended!
2 The sound of a whip, And the sound of the quaking wheel, And the horse galloping, And the chariot bounding along!
3 The horseman mounting up with blazing sword and flashing spear! And the many slain, and the mass of corpses, And there is no end to the dead bodies, So that they stumble over their bodies,
4 All because of the many prostitutions of the prostitute, Well favored and possessor of enchantments, Who is selling nations by her prostitutions, And families by her enchantments.
5 Behold Me against you, averring is Yahweh of hosts. I will roll your skirts over your face, And I will show the nations your nakedness, And the kingdoms your dishonor.
6 I will fling upon you abominable things, And I will disgrace you, And I will place you as a spectacle.
7 And it will come to be that all seeing you, they shall bolt away from you And say, Devastated is Nineveh! Who shall condole with her? From where shall I seek comforters for you?
8 Are you better than No-Amon, the dweller among the waterways, Water round about her, whose rampart was the sea and water was her wall?
9 Cush was her staunchness, Also Egypt, and there was no end; Put and Libyans, they became her help.
10 Moreover, she became an exile; She went into captivity. Also her infants, they were dashed to pieces at the head of all the streets; Over her glorious ones, they cast the lot, And all her great ones, they were chained with manacles.
11 You too shall be drunk; you shall become obscured. Even you shall seek a stronghold because of the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are fig trees with firstfruits: If they are swayed to and fro, then they will fall into the mouth of the eater.
13 Behold, your people are women in your midst; The gates of your land are opened, yea opened to your enemies. Fire devours your bars.
14 Bail for yourself water for the siege! Repair your fortresses! Go into the mud, and tramp on the clay! Repair the brickwork!
15 There the fire shall devour you; The sword shall cut you off. It shall devour you like the young-locust; Make yourself teeming as the young-locust; Make yourself teeming as the locust!
16 You increase your traders more than the stars of the heavens. The young-locust strips itself and is flying away.
17 Your men with insignias are like the locust, And your marshals like hoppers upon hoppers Which are camping on the stone dikes on a cold day. The sun rises, and they flit away, And their place is not known, where they are.
18 Your shepherds slumber, king of Assyria! Your nobles are tabernacling in serenity. Your people are diffused on the mountains, And there is no one gathering them together.
19 There is no dimming to your brokenness; Your smiting is ill. All hearing the report of you, they will applaud, with their palms over you, For over whom did not your evil pass continually?