Nachum 1

1The burden concerning Nineveh. The sefer chazon (book of the vision) of Nachum of Elkosh.

2A jealous G-d and taking vengeance is Hashem;

an avenger is Hashem, Ba'al Chemah (L-rd of Wrathful Fury);

Hashem will take vengeance on His adversaries,

and He reserveth wrath for His enemies.

3Hashem is slow to anger,

and great in ko'ach,

and will not at all leave the guilty unpunished;

Hashem hath His way in the whirlwind and in the tempest,

and the anan (clouds) are the dust of His feet.

4Hashem rebuketh the yam, and drieth it up,

and maketh all the neharot (rivers) run dry;

Bashan languisheth, and Carmel,

and the flower of the Levanon fadeth.

5The mountains quake before Hashem,

and the hills melt away,

and ha'aretz heaveth at His presence,

yea, tevel (the world), and all that dwell therein.

6Who can stand before Hashemʼs fury?

And who can endure His charon af (burning anger)?1

His chemah (wrath) is poured out like eish (fire)

and the tzurim (rocks) are rent in pieces before Him.

7Hashem is tov,

a maoz (stronghold) in the Yom Tzarah;

and Hashem knoweth them that take refuge in Him.

8But with an overwhelming flood

He will make an utter end of her2 site,

and Hashem shall pursue His enemies into choshech.

9Whatever plot ye against Hashem,

Hashem will make an utter end of anyone doing it;

tzarah (affliction) will not arise a second time.

10For while they be twisted together as sirim (thorns),

and while they are drunken as drunkards,

they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.

11There is one come out of thee,3

that imagineth evil against Hashem,

a yo'etz Beliya'al (a counselor of Beliya'al).4

12Thus saith Hashem:

Though they are strong, and likewise rabbim,

yet shall they thus be cut down, and he5 shall pass away.

Though I have afflicted thee [O Yehudah],

I will afflict thee no more.

13For now will I break his motah (yoke) from off thee,

and will break thy fetters in pieces.

14And Hashem hath given a command concerning thee,

that no more of thy name be sown;6

out of the bais of thy g-ds will I cut off

the pesel (graven image) and the molten image;

I prepare thy kever (grave);

for thou art vile.