Chap. I. ^note Niniue shal be destroyed, not able to escape Gods powreful wrath. 9. The Assirians shal not preuaile against Ierusalem: 13. but themselues shal be slaine.

1   The ^note burden of Niniuie. The booke of the vision of Nahum the Elceseite.

2   God is ielous, & our Lord reuenging, our Lord reuenging, and hauing furie: our Lord reuenging on his aduersaries, and he is angrie with his enemies.

3   Our Lord is patient, and great of strength and clensing, he wil not make innocent. Our Lords wayes in tempest, and whirlewind, and clowdes the dust of his feete.

4   Rebuking the sea, and driyng it vp: and bringing al riuers to a desert. Basan is weakened and Carmel: & the floure of Libanus is faided.

5   The mountaines were moued at him, and the hilles were desolate: and the earth hath trembled at his presence, and the world, and al that dwel therin.

6   Before the face of his indignation who shal stand? and who shal resist in the wrath of his furie? his indignation is powred out as fire: and the rockes are dissolued by him.

7   Our Lord is good, and strenghning in the day of tribulation: and knowing them that hope in him.

8   And in a floud passing by, he wil make a consummation of the place therof: & darkenes shal pursew his enemies.

9   VVhat thinke ye against our Lord? consumation he wil make: there shal not rise duble tribulation.

10   Because as thornes claspe one an other: so ^note the feast of them that drinke together: they shal be consumed as stuble ful of drienes.

11   Out of thee shal come forth one that thinketh malice against our Lord in the minde deuising preuarication.

12   Thus saith our Lord: If they shal be perfect: and so a great manie, so also shal they be shorne, and he shal passe by: I haue afflicted thee, and I wil afflict thee no more.

13   And now I wil breake his rod from of thy backe, and I wil burst thy bondes in sunder.

14   And Our Lord wil command vpon thee, there ^note shal not be sowen of thy name any more: out of the house of thy God I wil destroy sculptil, & molten, I wil put thy graue, because thou art dishonored.

15   Behold vpon the mountaines the feete of him that Euangalizeth, and preacheth peace: celebrate ô Iuda thy festiuities, & render thy vowes: because Belial shal no more adde to passe through thee, he is wholly perished.

Chap. II. ^note The Chaldees shal mightely inuade the Assirians, 5. take and ransacke Niniue.

1   He is come vp that ^note shal scatter before thee, that shal keepe the seige: behold the way, fortifie the Ioynes, strengthen force excedingly.

2   Because our Lord hath rendered ^note the pride of Iacob, as the pride of Israel: because the waters haue dissipated them, and haue marred their branches.

3   The buckler of his valiants fyrie, the men of the armie in scarlets, the raynes of the chariot fyrie in the day of his preparation, and the driuers are brought asleepe.

4   In the wayes they are trubled, the chariots strooke one agaynst an other in the streetes: their appearance are as it were lampes, as it were lightning running to and fro.

5   He wil remember his valiants, they shal fal in their wayes: they shal quickly scale the walles therof, and a bowre shal be prepared.

6   The gates of the riuers are opened, and the temple throwen downe to the ground.

7   And the souldiar is led away captiue: and her handmayds were led away mourning as doues, murmuring in their hartes.

8   And Niniue ^note her waters as it were a fishpoole of waters: but themselues are fled ^note Stand stand, & there is none that wil returne.

9   Spoile the siluer, spoile the gold: and there is no end of the riches of al vessels that are to be desired.

10   She is dissipated, and rent, and torne: and pyning hart, and dissolution of the knees, and defect in al reynes: and the faces of them al as the blacknes of a pot.

11    ^noteVVhere is the habitation of lions, & the pasture of lions welps, to which the lion went, to goe in thither, the lions whelpe, and is there none to make them afrayd?

12   The lion hath caught sufficiently for his welpes, and hath killed for his lionesses: and he hath filled his dennes with praye, and his couch with rauening.

13   Behold I to thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I wil burne thy chariots euen to smoke, and the sword shal eate thy litle lions: and I wil destroy thy praye out of the land, and the voice of thy messengers shal be heard no more. Chap. III. ^note A description of Niniues ruine, 5. made ignominious to al nations: 17. forraine souldiars fleing away, and al their owne terrified.

1   VVo to thee ô citie ^note of blouds, al of lying ful of tearing: spoile shal not depart from thee.

2   The voice of the whippe, and the voice of the violence of the wheele, & of the neighing horse, and of the feruent chariot, and of the horsman mounting.

3   And of the glistering sword, and of the glittering speare, and of a multitude slaine, and of a greuous ruine: neither is there an end of corses, and they shal fal on their bodies.

4   Because of the multitude of the fornications, of the harlot beautiful & grateful, and hauing sorceries, which hath sold nations in her fornications, & families in her sorceries.

5   Behold I to thee, sayth the Lord of hosts: and I wil discouer thy priuie parts in thy face, and wil shew to the Gentils thy nakednes, & to kingdoms thine ignominie.

6   And I wil throw vpon thee abominations, and wil vse thee contumeliously, and wil put thee for an example.

7   And it shal be, euerie one that shal see thee, shal leape backe from thee, and shal say: Niniue is wasted: who shal shake the head vpon thee? whence shal I seeke a c&obar;forter for thee?

8   Why, art thou better then ^note Alexandria ful of peoples, which dwelleth in the riuers? waters round about it: whose riches, the sea: waters the walles therof.

9   Æthiopia the strength of it, and Ægypt, & there is no end: Afrike, and the Libyans haue bene in thine ayde.

10   But she also in transmigration was led into captiuitie: her litle ones were dashed in the head of al wayes, and vpon her noble ones, they haue cast lot, and al her great men were made fast in fetters.

11   Thou also therfore shalt be made drunke, and shal be despised: and thou shalt seeke helpe of the enemie.

12   Al thy munitions as figtrees with their grene figges: if they be shaken, they wil fal into the mouth of the eater.

13   Behold thy people wemen in the middes of thee: to thine enimies the gates of thy land with opening shal be opened, fyre shal deuoure thy barres.

14   Draw thee water for the siege, build thy munitions: enter into the clay, and tread, making morter hold the bricke.

15   There the fyre shal eate thee: thou shalt perish by the sword, as a bruke it shal deuoure thee: be gathered together as the bruke, be multiplied as the locust.

16   Thou hast made thy merchandises more then are the starres of heauen: the bruke was spred, & flew away.

17   Thy kepers as the locusts: & thy litle ones as it were the locusts of locusts, which swarme on the hedges in the day of could: the sunne arose, & they flew away, and their place was not knowen where they were.

18   Thy

pastours slumbred, ô King of Assur, thy princes shal be buried thy people lay hid in the mountaynes, and there is none to gather them together.

19   Thy destruction is not obscure, thy plague is very sore: al that haue heard the fame of thee, haue clapped the hand vpon thee: for vpon whom hath not thy malice passed alwayes?

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