Nachum 1

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

2. A 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.

3. Hashem 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.

4. Hashem 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.

5. The 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.

6. Who can stand before Hashem’s fury? And who can endure His charon af (burning anger, see Ro 1:18)? His chemah (wrath) is poured out like eish (fire) and the tzurim (rocks) are rent in pieces before Him.

7. Hashem is tov, a maoz (stronghold) in the Yom Tzarah; and Hashem knoweth them that take refuge in Him.

8. But with an overwhelming flood He will make an utter end of her [Nineveh’s] site, and Hashem shall pursue His enemies into choshech.

9. Whatever plot ye against Hashem, Hashem will make an utter end of anyone doing it; tzarah (affliction) will not arise a second time.

10. For while they be twisted together as sirim (thorns), and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.

11. There is one come out of thee [see 1:1], that imagineth evil against Hashem, a yo’etz Beliya’al (a counselor of Beliya’al [i.e., Sennacherib]).

12. Thus saith Hashem: Though they are strong, and likewise rabbim, yet shall they thus be cut down, and he [the Assyrian] shall pass away. Though I have afflicted thee [O Yehudah], I will afflict thee no more.

13. For now will I break his motah (yoke) from off thee, and will break thy fetters in pieces.

14. And Hashem hath given a command concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown [i.e., to perpetuate his name]; 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.

15. (2:1) Hinei, upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth Besorah (Good News), that publisheth Shalom! O Yehudah, keep thy chagim, fulfill thy nedarim; for the Beliya’al shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.