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

2 God is jealous, and the LORD revenges; the LORD revenges, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserves 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 has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4 He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers: Bashan languishes, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languishes.

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

6 Who 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 The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knows 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 you imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.

10 For while they be entwined 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 you, that imagines evil against the LORD, a wicked counselor.

12 Thus said the LORD; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

13 For now will I break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds in sunder.

14 And the LORD has given a commandment concerning you, that no more of your name be sown: out of the house of your gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make your grave; for you are vile.

15 Behold on the mountains the feet of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace! O Judah, keep your solemn feasts, perform your vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through you; he is utterly cut off.

God's Goodness and Righteous Anger

Nah 1:1-15

The native city of Nahum was Elkosh, near the Lake of Galilee. The name Capernaum means literally the village of Nahum. He lived about 150 years after Jonah, who also had been especially concerned with the sins and doom of Nineveh. Though as a Jew he must have dreaded Nineveh, which had already carried Samaria into captivity and was now menacing Jerusalem, he accounted its fate a grievous burden- the burden of Nineveh. We must never speak of the doom of the ungodly, save from a broken heart.

Nah 1:1-8 forms a magnificent preamble combining the goodness and severity of God. His dealings with mankind are wrapped in mystery, but He is good and the stronghold of His saints. In Nah 1:9-15 we see how mad Assyria was to enter into conflict with Jehovah. The fate of thorns in fiercely burning flame is the emblem of their doom. Compare Nah 1:14 with Isa 37:38. When the hour of anguish is past, let us not forget to pay our vows.