1 aAn oracle concerning bNineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.
God’s Wrath Against Nineveh
2 cThe Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord is avenging and wrathful;
dthe Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries
and ekeeps wrath for his enemies.
3 fThe Lord is slow to anger and ggreat in power,
and hthe Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
iHis way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 jHe rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
he dries up all the rivers;
the bloom of kLebanon withers.
5 mThe mountains quake before him;
nthe hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
othe world and all who dwell in it.
6 pWho can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath qis poured out like fire,
and rthe rocks are broken into pieces by him.
7 sThe Lord is good,
ta stronghold in the day of trouble;
uhe knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But vwith an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,1
and wwill pursue his enemies into darkness.
9 What xdo you plot against the Lord?
yHe will make a complete end;
trouble will not rise up a second time.
10 For they are zlike entangled thorns,
like drunkards as they drink;
athey are consumed like stubble fully dried.
11 From you came one
bwho plotted evil against the Lord,
a worthless counselor.
12 Thus says the Lord,
“Though they are at full strength and many,
cthey will be cut down and pass away.
dThough I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.
13 And now eI will break his yoke from off you
and will burst your bonds apart.”
14 The Lord has given commandment about you:
f“No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from gthe house of your gods I will cut off
the carved image and the metal image.
15 2 jBehold, upon the mountains, kthe feet of him
who brings good news,
who publishes peace!
lKeep your feasts, O Judah;
mfulfill your vows,
nfor never again shall the worthless pass through you;
he is utterly cut off.
The Destruction of Nineveh
1 oThe scatterer has come up against you.
pMan the ramparts;
watch the road;
dress for battle;3
collect all your strength.
2 For qthe Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob
as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
and rruined their branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is red;
shis soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
on the day he musters them;
the cypress spears are brandished.
4 tThe chariots race madly through the streets;
they rush to and fro through the squares;
they gleam like torches;
they dart like lightning.
5 He remembers uhis officers;
vthey stumble as they go,
they hasten to the wall;
the siege tower4 is set up.
6 wThe river gates are opened;
the palace xmelts away;
7 its mistress5 is ystripped;6 she is carried off,
her slave girls zlamenting,
moaning like doves
and beating their breasts.
8 bNineveh is like a pool
whose waters run away.7
“Halt! Halt!” they cry,
but cnone turns back.
9 Plunder the silver,
plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
or of the wealth of all precious things.
10 dDesolate! Desolation and ruin!
eHearts melt and fknees tremble;
ganguish is in all loins;
hall faces grow pale!
11 Where is the lions’ den,
the feeding place of ithe young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
where his cubs were, with jnone to disturb?
12 kThe lion tore enough for his cubs
and lstrangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.
13 mBehold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and nI will burn your8 chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and othe voice of your messengers shall no longer be heard.
Woe to Nineveh
1 Woe to pthe bloody city,
all full of lies and plunder—
qno end to the prey!
2 The crack of the whip, and rrumble of the wheel,
sgalloping horse and tbounding chariot!
3 Horsemen charging,
flashing sword and uglittering spear,
vhosts of slain,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end—
they stumble over the bodies!
4 And all for the countless whorings of the wprostitute,
xgraceful and of deadly charms,
who betrays nations with her whorings,
and peoples with her charms.
5 mBehold, I am against you,
declares the Lord of hosts,
and ywill lift up your skirts over your face;
and I will make nations look at zyour nakedness
and kingdoms at your shame.
6 I will throw filth at you
and atreat you with contempt
and make you ba spectacle.
7 And all who look at you cwill shrink from you and say,
“Wasted is dNineveh; ewho will grieve for her?”
fWhere shall I seek comforters for you?
8 gAre you better than hThebes9
that sat iby the Nile,
with water around her,
her rampart a sea,
and water her wall?
9 jCush was her strength;
Egypt too, and that without limit;
10 mYet she became an exile;
she went into captivity;
nher infants were dashed in pieces
at the head of every street;
for her honored men olots were cast,
pand all her great men were bound in chains.
11 qYou also will be drunken;
you will go into hiding;
ryou will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are slike fig trees
with first-ripe figs—
if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
13 Behold, your troops
tare women in your midst.
The gates of your land
are wide open to your enemies;
fire has devoured your bars.
14 uDraw water for the siege;
rstrengthen your forts;
go into the clay;
tread the mortar;
take hold of the brick mold!
15 There will the fire devour you;
the sword will cut you off.
It will vdevour you wlike the locust.
Multiply yourselves wlike the locust;
multiply wlike the grasshopper!
16 You increased xyour merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
wThe locust spreads its wings and flies away.
17 Your zprinces are wlike grasshoppers,
ayour scribes11 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.
18 Your shepherds bare asleep,
O king of Assyria;
cyour nobles slumber.
Your people dare scattered on the mountains
with none to gather them.
19 There is no easing your hurt;
eyour wound is grievous.
All who hear the news about you
fclap their hands over you.
For gupon whom has not come
your unceasing evil?
Great Is the Lord
1 A Song of Praise. Of David.
1 jI will extol you, my God and kKing,
and bless your name forever and ever.
2 Every day I will bless you
land praise your name forever and ever.
3 mGreat is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,
and his ngreatness is unsearchable.
4 oOne generation shall commend your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.
5 On pthe glorious splendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
6 They shall speak of qthe might of your awesome deeds,
and I will declare your greatness.
7 They shall pour forth the fame of your rabundant goodness
and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.
8 The Lord is sgracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
9 The Lord is tgood to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.
10 uAll your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord,
and all your vsaints shall bless you!
11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom
and tell of your power,
12 to wmake known to the children of man your2 xmighty deeds,
and ythe glorious splendor of your kingdom.
13 zYour kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
[The Lord is faithful in all his words
and kind in all his works.]3
The 144,000 of Israel Sealed
1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back uthe four winds of the earth, vthat no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel ascending wfrom the rising of the sun, with xthe seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, 3 saying, y“Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God zon their foreheads.” 4 And aI heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
5 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
6 12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
7 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
8 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.
A Great Multitude from Every Nation
9 After this I looked, and behold, ba great multitude that no one could number, cfrom every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dclothed in white robes, with epalm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, f“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and gthe four living creatures, and they hfell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 isaying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, dclothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of jthe great tribulation. kThey have washed their robes and lmade them white min the blood of the Lamb.
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and nserve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne owill shelter them with his presence.
16 pThey shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
qthe sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne rwill be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of sliving water,
and tGod will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
The Seventh Seal and the Golden Censer
1 When the Lamb opened uthe seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels vwho stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 And another angel came and stood wat the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with xthe prayers of all the saints on ythe golden altar before the throne, 4 and zthe smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. 5 Then the angel took the censer and afilled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and bthere were peals of cthunder, rumblings,1 flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
The Seven Trumpets
6 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.
7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed dhail and efire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a fthird of the earth was burned up, and a third of gthe trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like ha great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea ibecame blood. 9 A third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of jthe ships were destroyed.
10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and ka great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on lthe springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood.2 A third of the waters mbecame wormwood, and many people died from the water, nbecause it had been made bitter.
12 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of othe sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.
13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly overhead, p“Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”
1 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and qI saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given rthe key to the shaft of sthe bottomless pit.3 2 He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft trose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and uthe sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. 3 Then from the smoke came vlocusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told wnot to harm xthe grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have ythe seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were allowed to torment them zfor five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. 6 And in those days apeople will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
7 bIn appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: con their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were dlike human faces, 8 their hair like women’s hair, and etheir teeth like lions’ teeth; 9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was flike the noise of many chariots with ghorses rushing into battle. 10 They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people hfor five months is in their tails. 11 They have ias king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is jAbaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.4
12 kThe first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.
13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from lthe four horns of the golden altar before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release mthe four angels who are bound at nthe great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released oto kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of pmounted troops was qtwice ten thousand times ten thousand; rI heard their number. 17 And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire5 and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were slike lions’ heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths. 18 By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. 19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.
20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, tdid not repent of uthe works of their hands nor give up worshiping vdemons wand idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, 21 nor did they repent of their murders or their xsorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.
