Nahum 1King James Version
The burden of Nineveh. God is jealous and the Lord revengeth. But the Lord is slow to anger, and great in power. The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. Then a famous verse often read at funerals: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings.
Nahum opens with a theophany: God is a jealous, avenging warrior whose anger reshapes creation itself. Mountains shake, seas dry up, and rocks shatter at his approach. Then the tone pivots sharply toward comfort. The same God who undoes the world is a stronghold for those who trust him, and his verdict on Nineveh is final.
God's wrath and God's protection are two sides of the same character. For Judah, the news from Nineveh is not terror but relief.
"The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him." (1:7) Planted at the center of a thunderstorm of divine fury, this verse is the anchor. Judgment is certain, but so is shelter.
Picture the sky darkening as a storm front rolls in over the mountains. Wind bends the cedars of Lebanon, the sea pulls back from the shore, and the dust under God's feet is clouds. Then a single herald crests a ridge above Jerusalem, waving, shouting good news. Two scenes, same morning. The terror belongs to Nineveh. The peace belongs to Judah.
Nahum the Elkoshite, the prophet and author, speaks on behalf of Judah. Nineveh is addressed as a city, already sentenced. God is the central actor throughout, portrayed as warrior, judge, and refuge.
Nahum delivers the counterpart to Jonah. A century earlier Nineveh repented and was spared. Now, having returned to cruelty and empire-building, the city faces a verdict with no appeal. This chapter establishes that divine patience is real but not infinite, and that the suffering nations endured under Assyria will be answered.
For Judah this is pure relief after generations of Assyrian brutality. The image of a messenger on the mountains announcing peace lands like someone finally saying the nightmare is over.
1The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2God 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.
3The 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.
4He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
5The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.
6Who 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.
7The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.
8But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.
9What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.
10For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.
11There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the LORD, a wicked counsellor.
12Thus saith 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 thee, I will afflict thee no more.
13For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder.
14And 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.
15Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.