What do you plot against Yahweh?
1 Oracle against Nineveh. This is the book of the vision which Nahum of Elkosh has seen.
2 Yahweh is a jealous and avenging God,
Yahweh takes vengeance in his wrath;
3 Yahweh is slow to anger
though immense in power.
He does not overlook the evil.
In storm and whirlwind is his path;
clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and dries it;
he drains rivers of their water.
Bashan and Carmel wither;
the blossoms of Lebanon fade.
5 Before him the mountains quake
and the hills melt;
the earth trembles
and all the peoples.
6 Who can stand before his fury?
Who can face his blazing anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are rent asunder.
7 Yahweh is good for those who hope;
in the day of trouble he shelters them.
He remembers those who trust in him
8 when the flood engulfs them.
He utterly destroys his adversaries
and pursues his foes into darkness.
What are you plotting against him?
Yahweh will bring it to an end,
9 oppression will not rise a second time.
Yahweh gives his foe no quarter,
he stores up fury for his enemy.
10 They will be entangled
devoured like thorns,
and be consumed like dry stubble.
11 Yahweh will take off Juda his enemy
the one who plots evil.
12 Thus Yahweh says to Judah:
“Though they be strong and many
they will be annihilated.
Though I had afflicted you,
no more shall I afflict you.
13 I will break their yoke from your neck
and tear away your shackles.”
14 To the people of Nineveh,
here is Yahweh’s decree.
“No descendants shall bear your name.
I will abolish from your temple
the carved image and the molten idol.
I will make your tomb an object of shame.”
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Comments Nahum, Chapter 1
• 1.1 This introductory song presents the central theme of Nahum’s prophecy: Yahweh is concerned about being acknowledged on earth as the only God; he is present in everything that takes place in nature, and above all, in the faithfulness towards his friends.
Trusting in God’s words, in a terrible poem Nahum prophesies the destruction of Nineveh blow by blow: it symbolizes liberation from all kinds of slavery.
Through Nahum, the Bible approves the happiness of all little people upon seeing the destruction of the powerful who ignored all their rights and dominated them through terror.