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obliteration

Nahum 1:1-15 (JDV)

Nahum 1:1 A pronouncement concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
Nahum 1:2 Yahveh is a jealous and avenging God; Yahveh takes vengeance and is fierce in wrath. Yahveh takes vengeance against his foes; he is furious with his enemies.
Nahum 1:3 Yahveh is slow to anger but great in power; Yahveh will never leave the guilty unpunished. His road is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath his feet.
Nahum 1:4 He rebukes the sea and dries it up, and he makes all the rivers run dry. Bashan and Carmel wither; even the flower of Lebanon withers.
Nahum 1:5 The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt; the land trembles at his presence — the world and all who live in it.
Nahum 1:6 Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before him.
Nahum 1:7 Yahveh is good, a stronghold in a day of distress; he cares for those who take refuge in him.
Nahum 1:8 But he will completely destroy Nineveh with an overwhelming flood, and he will chase his enemies into darkness.
Nahum 1:9 Whatever you plot against Yahveh, he will completely destroy; oppression will not rise up a second time.
Nahum 1:10 Because they will be consumed like entangled thorns, like the drink of a drunkard and like straw that is fully dry.
Nahum 1:11 One has gone out from you, who plots evil against Yahveh, and is a wicked counselor.
Nahum 1:12 This is what Yahveh says: Though they are strong and numerous, they will still be sheared off, and he will pass away. Though I have punished you, I will punish you no longer.
Nahum 1:13 For I will now break off his yoke from you and tear off your shackles.
Nahum 1:14 Yahveh has issued an order concerning you: There will be no offspring to carry on your name. I will cut down the carved idol and cast image from the house of your gods; I will prepare your grave, for you are contemptible.
Nahum 1:15 Notice the mountains — the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace. Celebrate your festivals, Judah; fulfill your vows. For the wicked one will never again march through you; he will be entirely cut down.

obliteration

The Ninevites are at it again, and this time God is determined to obliterate them. He has his tolerance for evil, and will allow the wicked time to repent, as we saw in Jonah. But when a nation, a people, or a person consistently does evil in his sight, and does not repent, he will make of them “a complete end” (9). They will be “consumed like stubble, fully dried” (10). The LORD promises his people a peace so thorough that “never again shall the worthless pass through you; he is utterly cut off” (15).

LORD, forgive us for our unfaithfulness. Make us a people who survive to your peace, not a people who come to an end.