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1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.
The Consuming Wrath of God2 A jealous and avenging God is the L ord, the L ord is avenging and wrathful; the L ord takes vengeance on his adversaries and rages against his enemies. 3 The L ord is slow to anger but great in power, and the L ord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. 4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and he dries up all the rivers; Bashan and Carmel wither, and the bloom of Lebanon fades. 5 The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who live in it.
6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and by him the rocks are broken in pieces. 7 The L ord is good, a stronghold in a day of trouble; he protects those who take refuge in him, 8 even in a rushing flood. He will make a full end of his adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. 9 Why do you plot against the L ord? He will make an end; no adversary will rise up twice. 10 Like thorns they are entangled, like drunkards they are drunk; they are consumed like dry straw. 11 From you one has gone out who plots evil against the L ord, one who counsels wickedness.
Good News for Judah12 Thus says the L ord, “Though they are at full strength and many, they will be cut off and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more. 13 And now I will break off his yoke from you and snap the bonds that bind you.”
14 The L ord has commanded concerning you: “Your name shall be perpetuated no longer; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the cast image. I will make your grave, for you are worthless.”
15 Look! On the mountains the feet of one who brings good tidings, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, O Judah, fulfill your vows, for never again shall the wicked invade you; they are utterly cut off. New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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Nahum continues still on the same subject, — that when God ascended his tribunal and appeared as the Judge of the world, he would not only shake all the elements, but would also constrain them to change their nature. For what can be less consonant to nature than for mountains to tremble, and for hills to be dissolved or to melt? This is more strange than what we can comprehend. But the Prophet intimates that the mountains cannot continue in their own strength, but as far as they are sustained by the favor of God. As soon, then, as God is angry, the mountains melt like snow, and flow away like water. And all these things are to be applied to this purpose, and are designed for this end, — that the wicked might not daringly despise the threatening of God, nor think that they could, through his forbearance, escape the punishment which they deserved: for he will be their Judge, however he may spare them; and though God is ready to pardon, whenever men hate themselves on account of their sins, and seriously repent; he will be yet irreconcilable to all the reprobate and the perverse. The mountains, then, before him tremble, and the hills dissolve or melt. This useful instruction may be gathered from these words, that the world cannot for a moment stand, except as it is sustained by the favor and goodness of God; for we see what would immediately be, as soon as God manifests the signals of his judgment. Since the very solidity of mountains would be as snow or wax, what would become of miserable men, who are like a shadow or an apparition? They would then vanish away as soon
as God manifested his wrath against them, as it is so in Psalm 39, that men pass away like a shadow. This comparison ought ever to be remembered by us whenever a forgetfulness of God begins to creep over us, that we may not excite his wrath by self-complacencies, than which there is nothing more pernicious. Burned,
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This sense has been given to the verb by the Rabbins, which is inconsistent with it as found here without any variations, and with the Greek versions. תשא is either from נשא, to lift up, or from שאה, to be laid waste, or to be confounded, the final ה being dropped; and this is what Newcome adopts. Marckius and Henderson take the former meaning in
the sense of being raised up or heaving. “Ανεσταλη, was removed,” Sept.; “Εκινηθη, was moved,” Symmachus; “Εφριξεν, trembled,” Aquila. The idea of being confounded or laid waste harmonizes best with all parts of the sentence; for the idea of having does not apply well to the inhabitants. We see here that all the Greek versions have the verb in the past tense; and so are the previous verbs in the verse as given in the Septuagint, and agreeably with the Hebrew.
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