Nahum 1; Nahum 2; Nahum 3; Revelation 14

Viewing Multiple Passages

Nahum 1

1 This is a message about Nineveh, the account of a vision seen by Nahum, who was from Elkosh.
2 The Lord God tolerates no rivals; he punishes those who oppose him. In his anger he pays them back.
3 The Lord does not easily become angry, but he is powerful and never lets the guilty go unpunished. Where the Lord walks, storms arise; the clouds are the dust raised by his feet!
4 He commands the sea, and it dries up! He makes the rivers go dry. The fields of Bashan wither, Mount Carmel turns brown, and the flowers of Lebanon fade.
5 Mountains quake in the presence of the Lord; hills melt before him. The earth shakes when the Lord appears; the world and all its people tremble.
6 When he is angry, who can survive? Who can survive his terrible fury? He pours out his flaming anger; rocks crumble to dust before him.
7 The Lord is good; he protects his people in times of trouble; he takes care of those who turn to him.
8 Like a great rushing flood he completely destroys his enemies; he sends to their death those who oppose him.
9 What are you plotting against the Lord? He will destroy you. No one opposes him more than once.
10 Like tangled thorns and dry straw you drunkards will be burned up!
11 From you, Nineveh, there came someone full of wicked schemes, who plotted against the Lord.
12 This is what the Lord says to his people Israel: "Even though the Assyrians are strong and numerous, they will be destroyed and disappear. My people, I made you suffer, but I will not do it again.
13 I will now end Assyria's power over you and break the chains that bind you."
14 This is what the Lord has decreed about the Assyrians: "They will have no descendants to carry on their name. I will destroy the idols that are in the temples of their gods. I am preparing a grave for the Assyrians - they don't deserve to live!"
15 Look, a messenger is coming over the mountains with good news! He is on his way to announce the victory! People of Judah, celebrate your festivals and give God what you solemnly promised him. The wicked will never invade your land again. They have been totally destroyed!
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Nahum 2

1 Nineveh, you are under attack! The power that will shatter you has come. Prepare the defenses! Guard the road! Prepare for battle
2 (The Lord is about to restore the glory of Israel, as it was before her enemies plundered her.)
3 The enemy soldiers carry red shields and wear uniforms of red. They are preparing to attack! Their chariots flash like fire! Their horses prance!
4 Chariots dash wildly through the streets, rushing back and forth in the city squares. They flash like torches and dart about like lightning.
5 The officers are summoned; they stumble as they press forward. The attackers rush to the wall and set up the shield for the battering ram.
6 The gates by the river burst open; the palace is filled with terror.
7 The queen is taken captive; her servants moan like doves and beat their breasts in sorrow.
8 Like water from a broken dam the people rush from Nineveh! "Stop! Stop!" the cry rings out - but no one turns back.
9 Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! The city is full of treasure!
10 Nineveh is destroyed, deserted, desolate! Hearts melt with fear; knees tremble, strength is gone; faces grow pale.
11 Where now is the city that was like a den of lions, the place where young lions were fed, where the lion and the lioness would go and their cubs would be safe?
12 The lion killed his prey and tore it to pieces for his mate and her cubs; he filled his den with torn flesh.
13 "I am your enemy!" says the Lord Almighty. "I will burn up your chariots. Your soldiers will be killed in war, and I will take away everything that you took from others. The demands of your envoys will no longer be heard."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Nahum 3

1 Doomed is the lying, murderous city, full of wealth to be looted and plundered!
2 Listen! The crack of the whip, the rattle of wheels, the gallop of horses, the jolting of chariots!
3 Cavalry troops charge, swords flash, spears gleam! Corpses are piled high, dead bodies without number - men stumble over them!
4 Nineveh the whore is being punished. Attractive and full of deadly charms, she enchanted nations and enslaved them.
5 The Lord Almighty says, "I will punish you, Nineveh! I will strip you naked and let the nations see you, see you in all your shame.
6 I will treat you with contempt and cover you with filth. People will stare at you in horror.
7 All who see you will shrink back. They will say, "Nineveh lies in ruins! Who has any sympathy for her? Who will want to comfort her?' "
8 Nineveh, are you any better than Thebes, the capital of Egypt? She too had a river to protect her like a wall - the Nile was her defense.
9 She ruled Ethiopia and Egypt, there was no limit to her power; Libya was her ally.
10 Yet the people of Thebes were carried off into exile. At every street corner their children were beaten to death. Their leading men were carried off in chains and divided among their captors.
11 Nineveh, you too will fall into a drunken stupor! You too will try to escape from your enemies.
12 All your fortresses will be like fig trees with ripe figs: shake the trees, and the fruit falls right into your mouth!
13 Your soldiers are helpless, and your country stands defenseless before your enemies. Fire will destroy the bars across your gates.
14 Draw water to prepare for a siege, and strengthen your fortresses! Trample the clay to make bricks, and get the brick molds ready!
15 No matter what you do, you will still be burned to death or killed in battle. You will be wiped out like crops eaten up by locusts. You multiplied like locusts!
16 You produced more merchants than there are stars in the sky! But now they are gone, like locusts that spread their wings and fly away.
17 Your officials are like a swarm of locusts that stay in the walls on a cold day. But when the sun comes out, they fly away, and no one knows where they have gone!
18 Emperor of Assyria, your governors are dead, and your noblemen are asleep forever! Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to bring them home again.
19 There is no remedy for your injuries, and your wounds cannot be healed. All those who hear the news of your destruction clap their hands for joy. Did anyone escape your endless cruelty?
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Revelation 14

1 Then I looked, and there was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion; with him were 144,000 people who have his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.
2 And I heard a voice from heaven that sounded like a roaring waterfall, like a loud peal of thunder. It sounded like the music made by musicians playing their harps.
3 The 144,000 people stood before the throne, the four living creatures, and the elders; they were singing a new song, which only they could learn. Of the whole human race they are the only ones who have been redeemed.
4 They are the men who have kept themselves pure by not having sexual relations with women; they are virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They have been redeemed from the rest of the human race and are the first ones to be offered to God and to the Lamb.
5 They have never been known to tell lies; they are faultless.
6 Then I saw another angel flying high in the air, with an eternal message of Good News to announce to the peoples of the earth, to every race, tribe, language, and nation.
7 He said in a loud voice, "Honor God and praise his greatness! For the time has come for him to judge all people. Worship him who made heaven, earth, sea, and the springs of water!"
8 A second angel followed the first one, saying, "She has fallen! Great Babylon has fallen! She made all peoples drink her wine - the strong wine of her immoral lust!"
9 A third angel followed the first two, saying in a loud voice, "Those who worship the beast and its image and receive the mark on their forehead or on their hand
10 will themselves drink God's wine, the wine of his fury, which he has poured at full strength into the cup of his anger! All who do this will be tormented in fire and sulfur before the holy angels and the Lamb.
11 The smoke of the fire that torments them goes up forever and ever. There is no relief day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, for anyone who has the mark of its name."
12 This calls for endurance on the part of God's people, those who obey God's commandments and are faithful to Jesus.
13 Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Happy are those who from now on die in the service of the Lord!" "Yes indeed!" answers the Spirit. "They will enjoy rest from their hard work, because the results of their service go with them."
14 Then I looked, and there was a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was what looked like a human being, with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
15 Then another angel came out from the temple and cried out in a loud voice to the one who was sitting on the cloud, "Use your sickle and reap the harvest, because the time has come; the earth is ripe for the harvest!"
16 Then the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle on the earth, and the earth's harvest was reaped.
17 Then I saw another angel come out of the temple in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.
18 Then another angel, who is in charge of the fire, came from the altar. He shouted in a loud voice to the angel who had the sharp sickle, "Use your sickle, and cut the grapes from the vineyard of the earth, because the grapes are ripe!"
19 So the angel swung his sickle on the earth, cut the grapes from the vine, and threw them into the wine press of God's furious anger.
20 The grapes were squeezed out in the wine press outside the city, and blood came out of the wine press in a flood two hundred miles long and about five feet deep.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.