God searches the heart and understands every motive. To be acceptable to Him, our motives must spring from a love for Him and a desire to glorify Him. Obedience to God performed from a legalistic motive – that is a fear of the consequences or to gain favor with God – is not pleasing to God.
Jerry Bridges

Nahum

Nahum

{1:1} The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum theElkoshite. {1:2} Jehovah is a jealous God and avengeth; Jehovahavengeth and is full of wrath; Jehovah taketh vengeance on hisadversaries, and he reserveth [wrath] for his enemies. {1:3} Jehovah isslow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means clear [theguilty]: Jehovah hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, andthe clouds are the dust of his feet. {1:4} He rebuketh the sea, andmaketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, andCarmel; and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. {1:5} The mountainsquake at him, and the hills melt; and the earth is upheaved at hispresence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. {1:6} Who canstand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness ofhis anger? his wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are brokenasunder by him. {1:7} Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day oftrouble; and he knoweth them that take refuge in him. {1:8} But with anover-running flood he will make a full end of her place, and willpursue his enemies into darkness. {1:9} What do ye devise againstJehovah? he will make a full end; affliction shall not rise up thesecond time. {1:10} For entangled like thorns, and drunken as withtheir drink, they are consumed utterly as dry stubble. {1:11} There isone gone forth out of thee, that deviseth evil against Jehovah, thatcounselleth wickedness. {1:12} Thus saith Jehovah: Though they be infull strength, and likewise many, even so shall they be cut down, andhe shall pass away. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict theeno more. {1:13} And now will I break his yoke from off thee, and willburst thy bonds in sunder. {1:14} And Jehovah hath given commandmentconcerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house ofthy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image; I willmake thy grave; for thou art vile. {1:15} Behold, upon the mountainsthe feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! Keepthy feasts, O Judah, perform thy vows; for the wicked one shall no morepass through thee; he is utterly cut off.

{2:1} He that dasheth in pieces is come up against thee: keep thefortress, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy powermightily. {2:2} For Jehovah restoreth the excellency of Jacob, as theexcellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, anddestroyed their vine-branches. {2:3} The shield of his mighty men ismade red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots flash with steelin the day of his preparation, and the cypress [spears] are brandished.{2:4} The chariots rage in the streets; they rush to and fro in thebroad ways: the appearance of them is like torches; they run like thelightnings. {2:5} He remembereth his nobles: they stumble in theirmarch; they make haste to the wall thereof, and the mantelet isprepared. {2:6} The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace isdissolved. {2:7} And it is decreed: she is uncovered, she is carriedaway; and her handmaids moan as with the voice of doves, beating upontheir breasts. {2:8} But Nineveh hath been from of old like a pool ofwater: yet they flee away. Stand, stand, [they cry]; but none lookethback. {2:9} Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; forthere is no end of the store, the glory of all goodly furniture. {2:10}She is empty, and void, and waste; and the heart melteth, and the kneessmite together, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of them allare waxed pale. {2:11} Where is the den of the lions, and thefeeding-place of the young lions, where the lion [and] the lionesswalked, the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid? {2:12} The liondid tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for hislionesses, and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with ravin.{2:13} Behold, I am against thee, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I willburn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy younglions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thymessengers shall no more be heard.

{3:1} Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and rapine; theprey departeth not. {3:2} The noise of the whip, and the noise of therattling of wheels, and prancing horses, and bounding chariots, {3:3}the horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, and the glitteringspear, and a multitude of slain, and a great heap of corpses, and thereis no end of the bodies; they stumble upon their bodies;- {3:4} becauseof the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, themistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms,and families through her witchcrafts. {3:5} Behold, I am against thee,saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will uncover thy skirts upon thy face;and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame.{3:6} And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile,and will set thee as a gazing-stock. {3:7} And it shall come to pass,that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say,Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seekcomforters for thee? {3:8} Art thou better than No-amon, that wassituate among the rivers, that had the waters round about her; whoserampart was the sea, [and] her wall was of the sea? {3:9} Ethiopia andEgypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thyhelpers. {3:10} Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity; heryoung children also were dashed in pieces at the head of all thestreets; and they cast lots for her honorable men, and all her greatmen were bound in chains. {3:11} Thou also shalt be drunken; thou shaltbe hid; thou also shalt seek a stronghold because of the enemy. {3:12}All thy fortresses shall be [like] fig-trees with the first-ripe figs:if they be shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater. {3:13}Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women; the gates of thyland are set wide open unto thine enemies: the fire hath devoured thybars. {3:14} Draw thee water for the siege; strengthen thy fortresses;go into the clay, and tread the mortar; make strong the brickkiln.{3:15} There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off;it shall devour thee like the canker-worm: make thyself many as thecanker-worm; make thyself many as the locust. {3:16} Thou hastmultiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the canker-wormravageth, and fleeth away. {3:17} Thy princes are as the locusts, andthy marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers, which encamp in the hedgesin the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and theirplace is not known where they are. {3:18} Thy shepherds slumber, O kingof Assyria; thy nobles are at rest; thy people are scattered upon themountains, and there is none to gather them. {3:19} There is noassuaging of thy hurt: thy wound is grievous: all that hear the reportof thee clap their hands over thee; for upon whom hath not thywickedness passed continually?

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