1 ¶ The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

2 ¶ God is jealous, and the LORD avenges; the LORD avenges and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserves wrath for his enemies.

3 T he LORD is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all treat the guilty as though they were innocent; the LORD whose way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4 H e reprehends the sea and makes it dry and dries up all the rivers; Bashan was destroyed, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon was destroyed.

5 T he mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, and the world and all that dwell therein.

6 W ho 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.

7 T he LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those that trust in him.

8 B ut with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of his place, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.

9 ¶ What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end; he will not hold back the tribulation the second time.

10 F or while they are entwined together as thorns, and while the drunkards shall be drinking, they shall be devoured as stubble full of dryness.

11 H e has come out of thee that has imagined evil against the LORD, a counsellor of Belial.

12 T hus hath the LORD said: For much rest that they have, and though they are many, yet thus shall they be cut down, and he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.

13 F or now I will break his yoke from off thee and will burst thy bonds in sunder.

14 A nd the LORD shall give a commandment concerning thee that no one else of thy name ever be sown; out of the house of thy god I will cut off the graven image and the molten image; I will make it thy grave because thou wert vile.

15 B ehold upon the mountains the feet of him that brings good tidings, of him that publishes peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows; for Belial shall no longer pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.