The LORD's Avenging Wrath

1¹ The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

² God [1] 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. ³ 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. ⁴ He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. ⁵ 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. ⁶ Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide [2] in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. ⁷ The Lord is good, a strong hold [3] in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. ⁸ But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.

⁹ What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. ¹⁰ For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry. ¹¹ There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked [4] counsellor. ¹² Thus saith the Lord; Though they be quiet, [5] 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. ¹³ For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder. ¹⁴ 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.

The Tidings of Nineveh's Fall

¹⁵ Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep [6] thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.

2¹ 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. ² 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. ³ The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: [7] the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. ⁴ 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. ⁵ He shall recount his worthies: [8] they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared. ⁶ The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved. [9] ⁷ And Huzzab [10] 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. ⁸ But Nineveh is of old [11] like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back. ⁹ Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end [12] of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture. ¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ 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? ¹² 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.

The Utter Ruin of Nineveh

¹³ 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.

3¹ Woe to the bloody [13] city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not; ² The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots. ³ The horseman lifteth up both the bright [14] 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: ⁴ 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. ⁵ 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. ⁶ And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock. ⁷ 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?

⁸ Art thou better than populous [15] 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? ⁹ Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers. [16] ¹⁰ 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. ¹¹ Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy. ¹² 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. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln. ¹⁵ 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. ¹⁶ Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, [17] and flieth away. ¹⁷ 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. ¹⁸ Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles [18] shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. ¹⁹ There is no healing [19] 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?

Habakkuk Complains of Injustice

1¹ The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. ² O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! ³ Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. ⁴ Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong [20] judgment proceedeth.

The Chaldeans Will Punish Judah

⁵ Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. ⁶ For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth [21] of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs. ⁷ They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment [22] and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. ⁸ Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce [23] than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. ⁹ They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. ¹⁰ And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it. ¹¹ Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.

Habakkuk Remonstrates with the LORD

¹² Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. ¹³ Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: [24] wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? ¹⁴ And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? ¹⁵ They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: [25] therefore they rejoice and are glad. ¹⁶ Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. [26] ¹⁷ Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

The LORD's Answer to Habakkuk

2¹ I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, [27] and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. ² And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. ³ For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. ⁴ Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.

⁵ Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:

Woes on the Unrighteous

⁶ Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Woe [28] to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay! ⁷ Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? ⁸ Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men's blood, [29] and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. ⁹ Woe to him that coveteth [30] an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil! ¹⁰ Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul. ¹¹ For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. ¹² Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, [31] and stablisheth a city by iniquity! ¹³ Behold, is it not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity? ¹⁴ For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

¹⁵ Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness! ¹⁶ Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the Lord's right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory. ¹⁷ For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. ¹⁸ What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? ¹⁹ Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. ²⁰ But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

Habakkuk's Prayer

3¹ A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth. ² O Lord, I have heard thy speech, [32] and was afraid: O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

³ God came from Teman, [33] and the Holy One from mount Paran. /*Selah*/. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. ⁴ And his brightness was as the light; he had horns [34] coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. ⁵ Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals [35] went forth at his feet. ⁶ He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting. ⁷ I saw the tents of Cushan [36] in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. ⁸ Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation? ⁹ Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. /*Selah*/. Thou didst cleave the earth [37] with rivers. ¹⁰ The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. ¹¹ The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light [38] of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear. ¹² Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger. ¹³ Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. /*Selah*/. ¹⁴ Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. ¹⁵ Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap [39] of great waters.

¹⁶ When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. ¹⁷ Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: ¹⁸ Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. ¹⁹ The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.