New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures Reference Bible

Nahum

1 The pronouncement against Nineveh:+ The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite:*

2 Jehovah is a God* exacting exclusive devotion+ and taking vengeance; Jehovah is taking vengeance+ and is disposed to* rage.+ Jehovah is taking vengeance against his adversaries,+ and he is resentful toward his enemies.+
3 Jehovah is slow to anger+ and great in power,+ and by no means will Jehovah hold back from punishing.+
   In destructive wind and in storm is his way, and the cloud mass is the powder of his feet.+
4 He is rebuking the sea,+ and he dries it up; and all the rivers he actually makes run dry.+
   Bashan and Car mel have withered,+ and the very blossom of Lebanon has withered.
5 Mountains themselves have rocked because of him, and the very hills found themselves melting.+
   And the earth will be upheaved because of his face; the productive land also,* and all those dwelling in it.+
6 In the face of his denunciation who can stand?+ And who can rise up against the heat of his anger?+
   His own rage will certainly be poured out like fire,+ and the very rocks* will actually be pulled down because of him.
7 Jehovah is good,+ a stronghold+ in the day of distress.+
   And he is cognizant of those seeking refuge in him.+
8 And by the flood that is passing along he will make an outright extermination of her* place,+ and darkness will pursue his very enemies.*+
9 What will YOU men think up against Jehovah?+ He is causing an outright extermination.
   Distress will not rise up a second time.+
10 Although they are being interwoven even as thorns+ and they are drunken as with their wheat beer,*+ they will certainly be devoured like stubble fully dry.+
11 Out of you* there will actually go forth one who is thinking up against Jehovah what is bad,+ counseling what is not worth while.*+

12 This is what Jehovah has said: “Although they were in complete form and there were many in that state, even in that state they must be cut down;+ and one must pass through. And I shall certainly afflict you, so that I shall not afflict you anymore.+ 13 And now I shall break his carrying bar from upon you,+ and the bands upon you I shall tear in two.+ 14 And concerning you* Jehovah has commanded, ‘Nothing of your name will be sown anymore.+ Out of the house of your gods* I shall cut off carved image and molten statue.+ I shall make a burial place for you,+ because you have been of no account.’*

15 “Look! Upon the mountains the feet of one bringing good news,* one publishing peace.+ O Judah, celebrate your festivals.+ Pay your vows;+ because no more will any good-for-nothing person* pass again through you.+ In his entirety he will certainly be cut off.”*+

2 One that does a scattering has come up before your* face.+ Let there be a safeguarding of the fortified place. Watch [the] way. Strengthen [the] hips. Reinforce power very much.+

2 For Jehovah will certainly gather the pride of Jacob,+ like the pride of Israel, because those emptying out have emptied them out;+ and the shoots of them they have ruined.+

3 The shield of his mighty men is dyed red; [his] men of vital energy* are dressed in crimson stuff.+ With the fire of iron [fittings] is the war chariot in the day of his getting ready, and the juniper+ tree [spears]* have been made to quiver. 4 In the streets the war chariots keep driving madly.+ They keep rushing up and down in the public squares. Their appearances are like torches. Like the lightnings+ they keep running.

5 He will remember his majestic ones.+ They will stumble in their walking.+ They will hasten to her wall, and the barricade will have to be firmly established. 6 The very gates of the rivers will certainly be opened, and the palace itself will actually be dissolved. 7 And it has been fixed; she has been uncovered; she will certainly be carried away,+ and her slave girls will be moaning, like the sound of doves,+ beating repeatedly upon their hearts.+ 8 And Nineveh, from the days [that] she [has been],+ was like a pool of waters;+ but they are fleeing. “Stand still, YOU men!* Stand still!” But there is no one turning back.+

9 Plunder silver, YOU men; plunder gold;+ as there is no limit to the [things in] arrangement. There is a heavy amount of all sorts of desirable articles.+

10 Emptiness and voidness, and [a city] laid waste!+ And the heart is melting,+ and there is a tottering of [the] knees,+ and severe pains are in all hips;+ and as for the faces of all of them, they have collected a glow [of excitement].+ 11 Where is the lair of lions, and the cave* that belongs to the maned young lions, where the lion* walked and entered,*+ where the lion’s cub was, and no one was making [them] tremble?+ 12 [The] lion was tearing to pieces enough for his whelps, and was strangling for his lionesses. And he kept his holes filled with prey and his hiding places with animals torn to pieces.+

13 “Look! I am against you,” is the utterance of Jehovah of armies,*+ “and I will burn up her* war chariot in the smoke.+ And a sword will devour your own maned young lions.+ And I will cut off from the earth your prey, and no more will the voice of your messengers be heard.”+

3 Woe to the city of bloodshed.*+ She is all full of deception [and] of robbery. Prey does not depart! 2 There is the sound of [the] whip+ and the sound of the rattling of [the] wheel, and the dashing horse and the leaping chariot.+ 3 The mounted horseman, and the flame of [the] sword, and the lightning of [the] spear,+ and the multitude of slain ones, and the heavy mass of carcasses; and there is no end to the dead bodies. They keep stumbling among their dead bodies; 4 owing to the abundance of the acts of prostitution of the prostitute,+ attractive with charm, a mistress of sorceries, she who is ensnaring nations by her acts of prostitution and families by her sorceries.+

5 “Look! I am against you,”*+ is the utterance of Jehovah of armies,* “and I will put the covering of your skirts over your face, and I will cause nations to see your nakedness,+ and kingdoms your dishonor. 6 And I will throw disgusting things upon you,+ and I will make you despicable; and I will set you as a spectacle.+ 7 And it must occur that everyone seeing you will flee away from you+ and will certainly say, ‘Nineveh has been despoiled! Who will sympathize with her?’ From where shall I seek comforters for you? 8 Are you better than No-amon,+ that was sitting by the Nile canals?+ Waters were all around her, whose wealth was [the] sea, whose wall was from [the] sea. 9 Ethiopia* was her full might, also Egypt;+ and that without limit. Put and the Libyans* themselves proved to be of assistance to you.*+ 10 She, too, was meant for exile; she went into captivity.+ Her own children also came to be dashed to pieces at the head of all the streets;+ and over her glorified men they cast lots,+ and her great ones have all been bound with fetters.+

11 “You yourself will also become drunk;+ you will become something hidden.+ You yourself also will seek a stronghold from [the] enemy.+ 12 All your fortified places are as fig trees with the first ripe fruits, which, if they get wiggled, will certainly fall into the mouth of an eater.+

13 “Look! Your people are women in the midst of you.+ To your enemies the gates of your land must without fail be opened. Fire will certainly devour your bars.+ 14 Water for a siege draw out for yourself.+ Strengthen your fortified places.+ Get into the mire, and trample down in the clay; grab hold of [the] brick mold. 15 Even there fire will devour you. A sword will cut you off.+ It will devour you like the locust+ species.* Make yourself heavy in numbers like the locust species; make yourself heavy in numbers like the locust.* 16 You have multiplied your tradesmen more than the stars of the heavens.+

“As for the locust species,* it actually strips off its skin; then it flies away. 17 Your guardsmen are like the locust,* and your recruiting officers like the locust swarm.* They are camping in the stone pens in a cold day. The sun itself has but to shine forth, and away they certainly flee; and their place is really unknown where they are.+

18 “Your shepherds have become drowsy,+ O king of Assyria; your majestic ones stay in their residences.+ Your people have been scattered upon the mountains, and there is no one collecting [them] together.+ 19 There is no relief for your catastrophe. Your stroke has become unhealable.+ All those hearing the report about you will certainly clap their hands at you;+ because upon whom was it that your badness did not pass over constantly?”+