Bible in 90 Days

¹¹ In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David, the fallen hut or booth, and close up its breaches; and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old,

¹² That they may possess the remnant of Edom and of all the nations that are called by My name, says the Lord Who does this.^(A)

¹³ Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills shall melt [that is, everything heretofore barren and unfruitful shall overflow with spiritual blessing].^(B)

¹⁴ And I will bring back the exiles of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine from them; they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them.

¹⁵ And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be torn up out of their land which I gave them, says the Lord your God.

¹ The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God concerning ^[a]Edom: We have heard tidings from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent forth among the nations [saying], Arise, and let us rise up against [Edom] for battle!^(C)

² Behold, I will make you small among the nations [Edom]; you shall be despised exceedingly.^(D)

³ The pride of your heart has deceived you, you dweller in the refuges of the rock [Petra, Edom’s capital], whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, Who can bring me down to the ground?

⁴ Though you mount on high as the eagle and though you set your nest among the stars, I will bring you down from there, says the Lord.

⁵ If thieves came to you, if robbers by night—how you are brought to nothing!—would they not steal only enough for themselves? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some grapes for gleaning? [But this ravaging was done by God, not men.]^(E)

⁶ How are the things of Esau [Edom] searched out! How are his hidden treasures sought out!

⁷ All the men of your confederacy (your allies) have brought you on your way, even to the border; the men who were at peace with you have deceived you and prevailed against you; they who eat your bread have laid a snare under you. There is no understanding [in Edom, or] of it.

⁸ Will not I in that day, says the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Edom and [men of] understanding out of Mount Esau [Idumea, a mountainous region]?

⁹ And your mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that everyone from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter.

¹⁰ For the violence you did against your brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever.

¹¹ On the day that you stood aloof [from your brother Jacob]—on the day that strangers took captive his forces and carried off his wealth, and foreigners entered into his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem—you were even as one of them.^(F)

¹² But you should not have gloated over your brother’s day, the day when his misfortune came and he was made a stranger; you should not have rejoiced over the sons of Judah in the day of their ruin; you should not have spoken arrogantly in the day of their distress.

¹³ You should not have entered the gate of My people in the day of their calamity and ruin; yes, you should not have looked [with delight] on their misery in the day of their calamity and ruin, and not have reached after their army and their possessions in the day of their calamity and ruin.

¹⁴ And you should not have stood at the crossway to cut off those of Judah who escaped, neither should you have delivered up those [of Judah] who remained in the day of distress.

¹⁵ For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your dealings will return upon your own head.^(G)

¹⁶ For as you [Edom] have drunk upon the mountain of My holiness [desecrating it in the wild revelry of the destroyers], so shall all the nations drink continually [in turn, of My wrath]; yes, they shall drink, talk foolishly, and swallow down [the full measure of punishment] and they shall be [destroyed] as though they had not been.^(H)

¹⁷ But on Mount Zion [in Jerusalem] there shall be deliverance [for those who escape], and it shall be holy; and the house of Jacob shall possess its [own former] possessions.^(I)

¹⁸ The house of Jacob shall be a fire and the house of Joseph a flame, but the house of Esau shall be stubble; they shall kindle and burn them and consume them, and there shall be no survivor of the house of Esau, for the Lord has spoken it.^(J)

¹⁹ They of the South (the Negeb) shall possess Mount Esau, and they of the lowland the land of the Philistines; they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria, and Benjamin shall possess Gilead [across the Jordan River].^(K)

²⁰ And the exiles of this host of the children of Israel who are among the Canaanites shall possess [Phoenicia] as far as Zarephath, and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad shall possess the cities of the South (the Negeb).

²¹ And deliverers shall go up on Mount Zion to rule and judge Mount Esau, and the kingdom and the kingship shall be the Lord’s.^(L)

1 Now the word of the Lord came to ^[b]Jonah son of Amittai, saying,

² Arise, go to ^[c]Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me.^(M)

³ But Jonah rose up to flee to Tarshish from being in the presence of the Lord [as His prophet] and went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish [the most remote of the Phoenician trading places then known]. So he paid the appointed fare and went down into the ship to go with them to Tarshish from being in the presence of the Lord [as His servant and minister].^(N)

⁴ But the Lord sent out a great wind upon the sea, and there was a violent tempest on the sea so that the ship was about to be broken.^(O)

⁵ Then the mariners were afraid, and each man cried to his god; and they cast the goods that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.

⁶ So the captain came and said to him, What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call upon your God! Perhaps your God will give a thought to us so that we shall not perish.

⁷ And they each said to one another, Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us. So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.

⁸ Then they said to him, Tell us, we pray you, on whose account has this evil come upon us? What is your occupation? Where did you come from? And what is your country and nationality?

⁹ And he said to them, I am a Hebrew, and I [reverently] fear and worship the Lord, the God of heaven, Who made the sea and the dry land.

¹⁰ Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, What is this that you have done? For the men knew that he fled from being in the presence of the Lord [as His prophet and servant], because he had told them.

¹¹ Then they said to him, What shall we do to you, that the sea may subside and be calm for us? For the sea became more and more [violently] tempestuous.

¹² And [Jonah] said to them, Take me up and cast me into the sea; so shall the sea become calm for you, for I know that it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.

¹³ Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring the ship to the land, but they could not, for the sea became more and more violent against them.

¹⁴ Therefore they cried to the Lord, We beseech You, O Lord, we beseech You, let us not perish for this man’s life, and lay not upon us innocent blood; for You, O Lord, have done as it pleased You.

¹⁵ So they took up Jonah and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging.

¹⁶ Then the men [reverently and worshipfully] feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

¹⁷ Now the Lord had prepared and appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.^(P)

2 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly,

² And said, I cried out of my distress to the Lord, and He heard me; out of the belly of Sheol cried I, and You heard my voice.^(Q)

³ For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your waves and Your billows passed over me.^(R)

⁴ Then I said, I have been cast out of Your presence and Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.^(S)

⁵ The waters compassed me about, even to [the extinction of] life; the abyss surrounded me, the seaweed was wrapped about my head.^(T)

⁶ I went down to the bottoms and the very roots of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed behind me forever. Yet You have brought up my life from the pit and corruption, O Lord my God.

⁷ When my soul fainted upon me [crushing me], I earnestly and seriously remembered the Lord; and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple.

⁸ Those who pay regard to false, useless, and worthless idols forsake their own [Source of] mercy and loving-kindness.

⁹ But as for me, I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that which I have vowed. Salvation and deliverance belong to the Lord!

¹⁰ And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

3 And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying,

² Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach and cry out to it the preaching that I tell you.

³ So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city of three days’ journey [sixty miles in circumference].

⁴ And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!

⁵ So the people of Nineveh believed in God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth [in penitent mourning], from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

⁶ For word came to the king of Nineveh [of all that had happened to Jonah, and his terrifying message from God], and he arose from his throne and he laid his robe aside, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

⁷ And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh, By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed nor drink water.

⁸ But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

⁹ Who can tell, God may turn and revoke His sentence against us [when we have met His terms], and turn away from His fierce anger so that we perish not.^(U)

¹⁰ And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God revoked His [sentence of] evil that He had said that He would do to them and He did not do it [for He was comforted and eased concerning them].

4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly and he was very angry.

² And he prayed to the Lord and said, I pray You, O Lord, is not this just what I said when I was still in my country? That is why I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, and [when sinners turn to You and meet Your conditions] You revoke the [sentence of] evil against them.^(V)

³ Therefore now, O Lord, I beseech You, take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.

⁴ Then said the Lord, Do you do well to be angry?

⁵ So Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city, and he made a booth there for himself. He sat there under it in the shade till he might see what would become of the city.

⁶ And the Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to deliver him from his evil situation. So Jonah was exceedingly glad [to have the protection] of the gourd.

⁷ But God prepared a cutworm when the morning dawned the next day, and it smote the gourd so that it withered.

⁸ And when the sun arose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah so that he fainted and wished in himself to die and said, It is better for me to die than to live.

⁹ And God said to Jonah, Do you do well to be angry for the loss of the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die!

¹⁰ Then said the Lord, You have had pity on the gourd, for which you have not labored nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.

¹¹ And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons not [yet old enough to] know their right hand from their left, and also many cattle [not accountable for sin]?

1 The word of the Lord that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw [through divine revelation] concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

² Hear, all you people; listen closely, O earth and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be witness among you and against you, the Lord from His holy temple.^(W)

³ For behold, the Lord comes forth out of His place and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth.^(X)

⁴ And the mountains shall melt under Him and the valleys shall be cleft like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place.

⁵ All this is because of the transgression of Jacob and the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not [the idol worship of] Samaria? And what are the high places [of idolatry] in Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?

⁶ Therefore I [the Lord] will make Samaria a ^[d]heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards; and I will pour down into the ravine her stones and lay bare her foundations.^(Y)

⁷ And all her carved images shall be broken in pieces, and all her hires [all that man would gain from desertion of God] shall be burned with fire, and all her idols will be laid waste; for from the hire of [one] harlot she gathered them, and to the hire of [another] harlot they shall return.

⁸ Therefore I [Micah] will lament and wail; I will go stripped and [virtually] naked; I will make a wailing like the jackals and a lamentation like the ostriches.

⁹ For [Samaria’s] wounds are incurable and they come even to Judah; He [the Lord] has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem.

¹⁰ In Gath [a city in Philistia] announce it not; in ^[e]Acco weep not at all, [betraying your grief to foreigners; but among your own people] in Beth-le-aphrah [house of dust] roll yourself in the dust.

¹¹ Pass on your way [into exile], dwellers of Shaphir, in shameful nakedness. The dwellers of Zaanan dare not come forth; the wailing of Beth-ezel takes away from you the place on which it stands.

¹² For the inhabitant of Maroth [bitterness] writhes in pain [at its losses] and waits anxiously for good, because evil comes down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³ Bind the chariot to the swift steed, O lady inhabitant of Lachish; you were the beginning of sin to the Daughter of Zion, for the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

¹⁴ Therefore you must give parting gifts to Moresheth-gath [Micah’s home town]; the houses of Achzib [place of deceit] shall be a deception to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵ Yet will I bring a conqueror upon you, O lady inhabitant of Mareshah, who shall possess you; the glory and nobility of Israel shall come to Adullam [to hide in the caves, as did David].^(Z)

¹⁶ Make yourself bald in mourning and cut off your hair for the children of your delight; enlarge your baldness as the eagle, for [your children] shall be carried from you into exile.

2 Woe to those who devise iniquity and work out evil upon their beds! When the morning is light, they perform and practice it because it is in their power.

² They covet fields and seize them, and houses and take them away; they oppress and crush a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.^(AA)

³ Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, against this family I am planning a disaster from which you cannot remove your necks, nor will you be able to walk erect; for it will be an evil time.

⁴ In that day shall they take up a [taunting] parable against you and wail with a doleful and bitter lamentation and say, We are utterly ruined and laid waste! [God] changes the portion of my people. How He removes it from me! He divides our fields [to the rebellious, our captors].

⁵ Therefore you shall have no one to cast a line by lot upon a plot [of ground] in the assembly of the Lord.^(AB)

⁶ Do not preach, say the prophesying false prophets; one should not babble and harp on such things; disgrace will not overtake us [the reviling has no end].

⁷ O house of Jacob, shall it be said, Is the Spirit of the Lord restricted, impatient, and shortened? Or are these [prophesied plagues] His doings? Do not My words do good to him who walks uprightly?

⁸ But lately (yesterday) My people have stood up as an enemy [and have made Me their antagonist]. Off from the garment you strip the cloak of those who pass by in secure confidence of safety and are averse to war.

⁹ The women of My people you cast out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away My glory forever.

¹⁰ Arise and depart, for this is not the rest [which was promised to the righteous in Canaan], because of uncleanness that works destruction, even a sharp and grievous destruction.

¹¹ If a man walking in a spirit [of vanity] and in falsehood should lie and say, I will prophesy to you of wine and strong drink, O Israel, he would even be the acceptable prophet of this people!^(AC)

¹² I will surely gather all of you, O Jacob; I will surely collect the remnant of Israel. I will bring them [Israel] together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in the midst of their pasture. They [the fold and the pasture] shall swarm with men and hum with much noise.

¹³ The ^[f]Breaker [the Messiah] will go up before them. They will break through, pass in through the gate and go out through it, and their King will pass on before them, the Lord at their head.^(AD)

3 And I [Micah] said, Hear, I pray you, you heads of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel! Is it not for you to know justice?—

² You who hate the good and love the evil, who pluck and steal the skin from off [My people] and their flesh from off their bones;

³ Yes, you who eat the flesh of my people and strip their skin from off them, who break their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot, like meat in a big kettle.

⁴ Then will they cry to the Lord, but He will not answer them; He will even hide His face from them at that time, because they have made their deeds evil.^(AE)

⁵ Thus says the Lord: Concerning the false prophets who make My people err, when they have anything good to bite with their teeth they cry, Peace; and whoever gives them nothing to chew, against him they declare a sanctified war.

⁶ Therefore it shall be night to you, so that you shall have no vision; yes, it shall be dark to you without divination. And the sun shall go down over the false prophets, and the day shall be black over them.

⁷ And the seers shall be put to shame and the diviners shall blush and be confounded; yes, they shall all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.

⁸ But truly I [Micah] am full of power, of the Spirit of the Lord, and of justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

⁹ Hear this, I pray you, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who abhor and reject justice and pervert all equity,

¹⁰ Who build up Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.

¹¹ Its heads judge for reward and a bribe and its priests teach for hire and its prophets divine for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, Is not the Lord among us? No evil can come upon us.^(AF)

¹² Therefore shall Zion on your account be ^[g]plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps [of ruins], and the mountain of the house [of the Lord] like a densely wooded height.^(AG)

4 But in the latter days it shall come to pass that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains; and it shall be exalted above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it.

² And many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways, and we may walk in His paths. For the law shall go forth out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

³ And He shall judge between many peoples and shall decide for strong nations afar off, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.^(AH)

⁴ But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and none shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken it.^(AI)

⁵ For all the peoples [now] walk every man in the name of his god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.

⁶ In that day, says the Lord, I will assemble the lame, and I will gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted.

⁷ And I will make the lame a remnant, and those who were cast off a strong nation; and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forever.

⁸ And you, O tower of the flock, the hill and stronghold of the Daughter of Zion, unto you the former dominion shall come, the kingdom of the Daughter of Jerusalem.

⁹ Now why do you cry aloud? Is there no king among you? Has your counselor perished, that pains have taken you like a woman in labor?

¹⁰ Writhe in pain and labor to bring forth, O Daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth; for now you shall go forth out of the city and you shall live in the open country. You shall go to Babylon; there you shall be rescued. There the Lord shall redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

¹¹ Now many nations are assembled against you, saying, Let her be profaned and let our eyes gaze upon Zion.

¹² But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither do they understand His plan, for He shall gather them as the sheaves to the threshing floor.

¹³ Arise and thresh, O Daughter of Zion! For I will make your horn iron and I will make your hoofs bronze; you shall beat in pieces many peoples, and I will devote their gain to the Lord and their treasure to the Lord of all the earth.^(AJ)

5 Now gather yourself in troops, O daughter of troops; a state of siege has been placed against us. They shall smite the ruler of Israel with a rod (a scepter) on the cheek.

² But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you are little to be among the clans of Judah; [yet] out of you shall One come forth for Me Who is to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have been from of old, from ancient days (eternity).^(AK)

³ Therefore shall He give them up until the time that she who travails has brought forth; then what is left of His brethren shall return to the children of Israel.

⁴ And He shall stand and feed His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God; and they shall dwell [secure], for then shall He be great [even] to the ends of the earth.^(AL)

⁵ And this [One] shall be our peace. When the Assyrian comes into our land and treads upon our soil and in our palaces, then will we raise against him seven shepherds and eight princes among men.^(AM)

⁶ And they shall rule and waste the land of Assyria with the sword and the land of Nimrod within her [Assyria’s own] gates. Thus shall He [the Messiah] deliver us from the Assyrian [representing the opposing powers] when he comes into our land and when he treads on our borders.

⁷ Then the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord, like showers upon the grass which [come suddenly and] tarry not for man nor wait for the sons of men.^(AN)

⁸ And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations in the midst of many peoples like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion [suddenly appearing] among the flocks of sheep which, when it goes through, treads down and tears in pieces, and there is no deliverer.

⁹ Your hand will be lifted up above your adversaries, and all your enemies shall be cut off.

¹⁰ And in that day, says the Lord, I will cut off your horses [on which you depend] from among you and will destroy your chariots.^(AO)

¹¹ And I will cut off the cities of your land and throw down all your strongholds.

¹² And I will cut off witchcrafts and sorceries from your hand, and you shall have no more soothsayers.

¹³ Your carved images also I will cut off and your statues or pillars out of your midst, and you shall no more worship the work of your hands.

¹⁴ And I will root out your Asherim [symbols of the goddess Asherah] and I will destroy your cities [the seats of false worship].^(AP)

¹⁵ And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance upon the nations which would not obey [vengeance such as they have not heard of before].

6 Hear now what the Lord says: Arise, contend and plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.

² Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s controversy, and you strong and enduring foundations of the earth, for the Lord has a controversy (a pleading contention) with His people, and He will [pleadingly] contend with Israel.

³ O My people, what have I done to you? And in what have I wearied you? Testify against Me [answer Me]!

⁴ For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house where you were bond servants, and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

⁵ O My people, [earnestly] remember now what Balak king of Moab devised and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him; [remember what the Lord did for you] from ^[h]Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous and saving acts of the Lord.^(AQ)

⁶ With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?^(AR)

⁹ The voice of the Lord calls to the city [Jerusalem]—and it is sound wisdom to hear and fear Your name—Hear (heed) the rod and Him Who has appointed it.

¹⁰ Are there not still treasures gained by wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a scant measure [a false measure for grain] that is abominable and accursed?

¹¹ Can I be pure [Myself, and acquit the man] with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights?^(AS)

¹² For [the city’s] rich men are full of violence; her inhabitants have spoken lies and their tongues are deceitful in their mouths.

¹³ Therefore I have also smitten you with a deadly wound and made you sick, laying you desolate, waste, and deserted because of your sins.

¹⁴ You shall eat but not be satisfied, and your emptiness and hunger shall remain in you; you shall carry away [goods and those you love] but fail to save them, and those you do deliver I will give to the sword.

¹⁵ You shall sow but not reap; you shall tread olives but not anoint yourselves with oil, and [you shall extract juice from] the grapes but not drink the wine.

¹⁶ For the statutes of [idolatrous] Omri you have kept, and all the works of the house of [wicked] Ahab, and you walk in their counsels. Therefore I will make you a desolation and an astonishment and your [city’s] inhabitants a hissing, and you shall bear the reproach and scorn of My people.

7 Woe is me! For I am as when the summer fruits have been gathered, as when the vintage grapes have been gleaned and there is no cluster to eat, no first-ripe fig for which my appetite craves.

² The godly man has perished from the earth, and there is none upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; each hunts his brother with a net.

³ Both their hands are put forth and are upon what is evil to do it diligently; the prince and the judge ask for a bribe, and the great man utters his evil desire. Thus they twist between them [the course of justice].

⁴ The best of them is like a brier; the most upright or the straightest is like a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even of [God’s] judgment and your punishment, has come; now shall be their perplexity and confusion.

⁵ Trust not in a neighbor; put no confidence in a friend. Keep the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your bosom.^(AT)

⁶ For the son dishonors the father, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—a man’s enemies are the men (members) of his own house.^(AU)

⁷ But as for me, I will look to the Lord and confident in Him I will keep watch; I will wait with hope and expectancy for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.

⁸ Rejoice not against me, O my enemy! When I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light to me.

⁹ I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against Him, until He pleads my cause and executes judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold His righteous deliverance.^(AV)

¹⁰ Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her who said to me, Where is the Lord your God? My eyes will see my desire upon her; now she will be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

¹¹ In the day that your walls are to be built [a day for building], in that day shall the boundary [of Israel] be far extended and the decree [against her] be far removed.^(AW)

¹² In that day they will come to you from Assyria and from the cities of Matzor [Egypt] and from Egypt even to the river [Euphrates], from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

¹³ Yet shall the earth be desolate because of those who dwell in it, for the fruit of their doings.

¹⁴ Rule and feed Your people with Your rod and scepter, the flock of Your inheritance who dwell alone in a forest in the midst of Carmel [a garden land]; they shall feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

¹⁵ As in the days of your coming forth from the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things.

¹⁶ The nations shall see [God’s deliverance] and be ashamed of all their might [which cannot be compared to His]. They shall lay their hands upon their mouths in consternation; their ears shall be deaf.

¹⁷ They shall lick the dust like a serpent; like crawling things of the earth they shall come trembling out of their strongholds and close places. They shall turn and come with fear and dread to the Lord our God and shall be afraid and stand in awe because of You [O Lord].^(AX)

¹⁸ Who is a God like You, Who forgives iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retains not His anger forever, because He delights in mercy and loving-kindness.

¹⁹ He will again have compassion on us; He will subdue and tread underfoot our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.^(AY)

²⁰ You will show Your faithfulness and perform the sure promise to Jacob and loving-kindness and mercy to Abraham, as You have sworn to our fathers from the days of old.^(AZ)

1 The burden or oracle (the thing to be lifted up) concerning ^[i]Nineveh [the capital of Assyria]. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

² The Lord is a jealous God and avenging; the Lord avenges and He is full of wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on His adversaries and reserves wrath for His enemies.^(BA)

³ The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will by no means clear the guilty. The Lord has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.^(BB)

⁴ He rebukes and threatens the sea and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan [on the east] and Mount Carmel [on the west] wither, and [in the north] the blossom of Lebanon fades.

⁵ The mountains tremble and quake before Him and the hills melt away, and the earth is upheaved at His presence—yes, the world and all that dwell in it.

⁶ Who can stand before His indignation? And who can stand up and endure the fierceness of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by Him.

⁷ The Lord is good, a Strength and Stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows (recognizes, has knowledge of, and understands) those who take refuge and trust in Him.^(BC)

⁸ But with an ^[j]overrunning flood He will make a full end of [Nineveh’s very] site and pursue His enemies into darkness.

⁹ What do you devise and [how mad is your attempt to] plot against the Lord? He will make a full end [of Nineveh]; affliction [which My people shall suffer from Assyria] shall not rise up the second time.

¹⁰ For [the Ninevites] are as bundles of thorn branches [for fuel], and even while drowned in their drunken [carousing] they shall be consumed like stubble fully dry [in the day of the Lord’s wrath].^(BD)

¹¹ There is one gone forth out of you [O Nineveh] who plots evil against the Lord, a villainous ^[k]counselor [the king of Assyria, who counsels for wickedness and worthlessness].^(BE)

¹² Thus says the Lord: Though they be in full strength and likewise many, even so shall [the Assyrians] be cut down when [their evil counselor] shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you [Jerusalem], I will not cause you to be afflicted [for your past sins] any more.^(BF)

¹³ For now will I break his yoke from off you and will burst your bonds asunder.^(BG)

¹⁴ And the Lord has given a commandment concerning you [evil Assyrian counselor], that no more of your name shall be born nor shall your name be perpetuated. Out of the house of your gods I will cut off the graven and molten images; I will make [their temple] your tomb, for you are vile and despised.^(BH)

¹⁵ Behold! upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings [telling of the Assyrian’s death], who publishes peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah; perform your vows. For the wicked counselor [the king of Assyria] shall no more come against you or pass through your land; he is utterly cut off. ^(BI) [Then the prophet Nahum sarcastically addresses his message to Nineveh:]

2 He who dashes in pieces [that is, the king of Medo-Babylon] is come up before your face [Nineveh]. Keep the fortress and ramparts manned, watch the road, gird your loins, collect and fortify all your strength and power mightily.

² For the Lord restores the excellency of Jacob as the excellency of [ancient] Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and emptied them out and [outrageously] destroyed their vine branches.^(BJ)

³ The shields of the mighty men [of Media and Babylon] are [dyed] red; the valiant men are [clothed] in dyed scarlet. The chariots blaze with fire of steel on the day of his preparation [for battle], and the officers’ horses prance like a cypress forest [reeling in the wind].

⁴ The chariots rage in confusion in the streets; they run to and fro [in wild terror] in the broad ways. They flash with steel [making them appear like torches]; they rush [in various directions] like forked lightnings.

⁵ [The Assyrian leader] remembers and summons his bravest men; they stumble in their march. They hasten to the city’s wall, and their movable defense shelter is prepared and set up.

⁶ The gates or dams of the rivers [surrounding and guarding Nineveh] are opened and the [imperial] palace [of sun-dried brick] is dissolved [by the torrents] and is in dismay.

⁷ It is decreed. She [Nineveh] is stripped and removed, and her maids are lamenting and moaning like doves [softly for fear], beating upon their breasts [and hearts].

⁸ And Nineveh, like a standing pool are her waters and [her inhabitants] are fleeing away! Stand! Stand [firm! a few cry], but no one looks back or causes them to return.

⁹ Take the spoil of silver; take the spoil of gold! For there is no end of the treasure, the glory and wealth of all the precious furnishings.

¹⁰ Emptiness! Desolation! Utter waste! Hearts faint and knees smite together, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of all grow pale!^(BK)

¹¹ Where is the den of the lions which was the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?

¹² The lion tore in pieces enough for his whelps and strangled [prey] for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with what he had seized and carried off.

¹³ Behold, I am against you [Nineveh], says the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. And I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no more be heard.

3 Woe to the bloody city! It is full of lies and booty and [there is] no end to the plunder!^(BL)

² The cracking of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, and prancing horses and chariots rumbling and bounding,

³ Horsemen mounting and charging, the flashing sword, the gleaming spear, a multitude of slain and a great number of corpses, no end of corpses! [The horsemen] stumble over the corpses!

⁴ All because of the multitude of the harlotries [of Nineveh], the well-favored harlot, the mistress of deadly charms who betrays and sells nations through her whoredoms [idolatry] and peoples through her enchantments.

⁵ Behold, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will lift up your skirts over your face, and I will let the nations look on your nakedness [O Nineveh] and the kingdoms on your shame.

⁶ I will cast abominable things at you and make you filthy, treat you with contempt, and make you a gazingstock.

⁷ And all who look on you will shrink and flee from you and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will pity and bemoan her? Where [then] shall I seek comforters for you?

⁸ Are you better than No-amon [Thebes, capital of Upper Egypt], that dwelt by the rivers or canals, that had the waters round about her, whose rampart was a sea [the Nile] and water her wall?

⁹ Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and that without limit. Put and the Libyans were her helpers.

¹⁰ Yet she was carried away; she went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at all the street corners; lots were cast [by the Assyrian officers] for her nobles, and all her great men were bound with chains.

¹¹ You will be drunk [Nineveh, with the cup of God’s wrath]; you will be dazed. You will seek and require a refuge because of the enemy.

¹² All your fortresses are fig trees with early figs; if they are shaken they will fall into the mouth of the eater.

¹³ Behold, your troops in the midst of you are [as weak and helpless as] women; the gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies [without effort]; fire consumes your bars.

¹⁴ Draw for yourself the water [necessary] for a [long continued] siege, make strong your fortresses! Go down into the clay pits and trample the mortar; make ready the brickkiln [to burn bricks for the bulwarks]!

¹⁵ [But] there [in the very midst of these preparations] will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off; it will destroy you as the locusts [destroy]. Multiply yourselves like the licking locusts; make yourselves many like the swarming locusts!

¹⁶ You increased your merchants more than the [visible] stars of the heavens. The swarming locust spreads itself and destroys, and then flies away.

¹⁷ Your princes are like the grasshoppers and your marshals like the swarms of locusts which encamp in the hedges on a cold day—but when the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where they are.

¹⁸ Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles are lying still [in death]. Your people are scattered on the mountains and there is no one to gather them.

¹⁹ There is no healing of your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over [what has happened to] you. For upon whom has not your [unceasing] evil come continually?