XI Nahum’s
DOOM OF NINEVEH
1
The Lord is a jealous God and avengeth; the Lord avengeth and is full of wrath; the Lord taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt; and the earth is upheaved at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who 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 broken asunder by him.
The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that put their trust in him.
But with an overrunning flood he will make a full end of the place thereof, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
2
What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make a full end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. For though they be like tangled thorns, and be drenched as it were in their drink, they shall be devoured utterly as dry stubble. There is one gone forth out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, that counselleth wickedness. Thus saith the Lord: Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so shall they be cut down, and he shall pass away.
Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. And now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder.
And the Lord hath given 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.
3
Behold, upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! Keep thy feasts, O Judah, perform thy vows: for the wicked one shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.
He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face:
Keep the munition; watch the way;
Make thy loins strong,
Fortify thy power mightily.
For the Lord bringeth again the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.
The shield of his mighty men is made red:
The valiant men are in scarlet:
The chariots flash with steel in the day of his preparation,
And the spears are shaken terribly.
The chariots rage in the streets,
They justle one against another in the broad ways:
The appearance of them is like torches,
They run like the lightnings.
He remembereth his worthies:
They stumble in their march;
They make haste to the wall thereof,
And the mantelet is prepared.
The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved:
And Huzzab is uncovered; she is carried away;
And her handmaids mourn as with the voice of doves,
Tabering upon their breasts.
But Nineveh hath been from of old like a pool of water;
Yet they flee away:
‘Stand, stand’
—
But none looketh back.
Take ye the spoil of silver,
Take the spoil of gold;
For there is none end of the store,
The glory of all pleasant furniture.
She is empty, and void, and waste:
And the heart melteth, and the knees smite together;
And anguish is in all loins,
And the faces of them all are waxed pale.
4
Where is the den of the lions,
And the feeding place of the young lions,
Where the lion and the lioness walked,
The lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?
The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps,
And strangled for his lionesses;
And filled his caves with prey,
And his dens with ravin.
5
Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.
Woe to the bloody city!
It is all full of lies and rapine;
The prey departeth not.
The noise of the whip, and the noise of the rattling of wheels;
And pransing horses, and jumping chariots;
The horseman mounting, and the flashing sword, and the glittering spear;
And a multitude of slain, and a great heap of carcases:
And there is none end of the corpses;
They stumble upon their corpses:
Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favoured harlot,
The mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms,
And families through her witchcrafts.
Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face; and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock. And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say:
6
Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her?
Whence shall I seek comforters for thee?
Art thou better than No-amon, that was situate among the rivers,
That had the waters round about her;
Whose rampart was the sea,
And her wall was of the sea?
Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite;
Put and Lubim were thy helpers:
Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity:
Her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets;
And they cast lots for her honourable men,
And all her great men were bound in chains:
Thou also shalt be drunken, thou shalt be hid;
Thou also shalt seek a strong hold because of the enemy.
All thy fortresses shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs:
If they be shaken,
They fall into the mouth of the eater.
Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women;
The gates of thy land are set wide open unto thine enemies;
The fire hath devoured thy bars.
Draw the water for the siege;
Strengthen thy fortresses:
Go into the clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brickkiln:
There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off.
It shall devour thee like the cankerworm:
Make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locust;
Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven:
The cankerworm spreadeth himself, and flieth away.
Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers,
Which camp in the hedges in the cold day,
But when the sun ariseth they flee away,
And their place is not known where they are.
7
Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria,
Thy worthies are at rest:
Thy people are scattered upon the mountains,
And there is none to gather them.
There is no assuaging of thy hurt;
Thy wound is grievous:
All that hear the bruit of thee clap the hands over thee:
For upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?
Rhapsody
Or
Prophetic Drama
Jeremiah’s
RHAPSODY OF THE DROUGHT
Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they sit in black upon the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
And their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the pits, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty: they are ashamed and confounded, and cover their heads.
Because of the ground which is chapt, for that no rain hath been in the land, the plowmen are ashamed, they cover their heads.
Yea, the hind also in the field calveth, and forsaketh her young, because there is no grass. And the wild asses stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage.
Repentant Israel
Though our iniquities testify against us, work thou for thy name’s sake, O Lord: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee. O thou hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in the time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a sojourner in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name: leave us not.
The Prophet
Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Even so have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet: therefore the Lord doth not accept them; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins.
The Lord (to the Prophet)
Pray not for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
The Prophet
Ah, Lord God! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.
The Lord
The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake I unto them; they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their own heart. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them. And thou shalt say this word unto them, ‘Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound. If I go forth into the field, then behold the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then behold them that are sick with famine! for both the prophet and the priest go about in the land and have no knowledge.’
Repentant Israel
Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? hath thy soul loathed Zion? why hast thou smitten us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold dismay! We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us. Are there any among the vanities of the heathen that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Lord our God? therefore we will wait upon thee; for thou hast made all these things.
The Lord (to the Prophet)
Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. And it shall come to pass, when they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith the Lord: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity. And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the Lord: the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy. And I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. For who shall have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall turn aside to ask of thy welfare? Thou hast rejected me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: therefore have I stretched out my hand against thee, and destroyed thee; I am weary with repenting. And I have fanned them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them of children, I have destroyed my people; they have not returned from their ways. Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall upon her suddenly. She that hath borne seven languisheth; she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the Lord.
The Prophet
Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent on usury, neither have men lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me.
The Lord (to the Prophet)
Verily I will strengthen thee for good; verily I will cause the enemy to make supplication unto thee in the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
The Lord (to the People)
Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass? Thy substance and thy treasures will I give for a spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders. And I will make thee to serve thine enemies in a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger, which shall burn upon you.
Repentant Israel
O Lord, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors: take me not away in thy longsuffering: know that for thy sake I have suffered reproach. Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. I sat not in the assembly of them that make merry, nor rejoiced: I sat alone because of thy hand; for thou hast filled me with indignation. Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed? wilt thou indeed be unto me as a deceitful brook, as waters that fail?
The Lord
Therefore thus saith the Lord: If thou return, then will I bring thee again, that thou mayest stand before me; and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: they shall return unto thee, but thou shalt not return unto them.
Epilogue (to the Prophet)
And I will make thee unto this people a fenced brasen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.
Habakkuk’s
RHAPSODY OF THE CHALDEANS