Nah 1 | EE | STEP | Nahum lives in Elkosh and this is his prophecy about the people in Nineveh.

Nahum 1

God is angry with Nineveh

1 Nahum lives in Elkosh and this is his prophecy about the people in Nineveh. ^{▼▼1:1 Elkosh is a town in Judah.}

2 God is angry with the people in Nineveh. The LORD loves his people. But he is very angry with his enemies. He is so angry with them that he must punish them. He will be angry until he has killed his enemies. 3 The LORD will punish those who do wrong things. But he does not get angry quickly. He is a powerful God. The LORD does not get angry quickly. But he gets angry when people do wrong things. Then he punishes those people.

He is very powerful. You can see his power in the whirlwind and in the storm. A man moves small bits of dirt when he walks. The clouds are like that to God. 4 He can cause the sea and the rivers to become dry by one word. The fertile places of Bashan and Carmel become dry and the green forests of Lebanon die too. 5 He causes the mountains to shake and he causes the hills to become flat. The earth and all the people in the world are afraid of God.

6 Nobody can fight God when he is very angry. The LORD pours his anger out like fire and he breaks the rocks in his path. 7 The LORD loves those who believe him. When they are in trouble, they can put their hope in God. 8 But the people in Nineveh are his enemies and he will kill them. 9 The LORD will stop their plans against him at once. 10 He will kill them. And then it will be like when thorny bushes have caught people. Or it will be like when they have drunk too much alcohol. It will be like when someone burns very dry stubble. 11 The LORD tells the king of Nineveh that he has done bad things against God. And the king has told his people that they should do wrong things.

12 The LORD has said, ‘The people in Nineveh are many. And they think that they are safe. But I will kill them. I have punished you, my people, before now but now I will stop punishing you. 13 Now I will make you free from the people from Nineveh. And I will break the things that are holding you like iron.’

14 Nineveh, the LORD has said what will happen to you. He has said, ‘You will have no children and your family name will have an end. I will destroy the statues that you made out of wood and metal. You worship those statues in your temples. There I will make graves for you because you are bad.’

15 People in Judah, look at the mountains. You will see the feet of the person who will bring good news. He causes peace. You can have religious parties now. And now you can do what you promised to me. The bad people will not win a war against you because I have killed them. ^{▼▼1:15 God has used armies to punish his people. This is because they have not listened to him. And they have not done what he says. One of those armies came from Nineveh. Now God will help his people. God will use other armies to punish the people in Nineveh because they have been so cruel and bad.}