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Nahum 1:9

What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a full end. Affliction won’t rise up the second time.

World English Bible, updated 66-book edition (engwebp). Text provenance and public-domain notice.

Read the full chapter: Nahum 1

1 A revelation about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

2 The LORD is a jealous God and avenges. The LORD avenges and is full of wrath. The LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies.

3 The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. The LORD has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel languish. The flower of Lebanon languishes.

5 The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.

6 Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken apart by him.

7 The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knows those who take refuge in him.

8 But with an overflowing flood, he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

9 What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a full end. Affliction won’t rise up the second time.

10 For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly like dry stubble.

11 One has gone out of you who devises evil against the LORD, who counsels wickedness.

12 The LORD says: “Though they are in full strength and likewise many, even so they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more.

13 Now I will break his yoke from off you, and will burst your bonds apart.”

14 The LORD has commanded concerning you: “No more descendants will bear your name. Out of the house of your gods, I will cut off the engraved image and the molten image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”

15 Behold, on the mountains the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace! Keep your feasts, Judah! Perform your vows, for the wicked one will no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off.

Context for study

The book opens as a revelation about Nineveh. Verse 9 challenges plotting against the LORD, and verse 11 returns to the person who devises evil against him. The chapter then speaks of breaking a yoke and announces peace to Judah (verses 13–15). This setting ties the promised end of affliction to the judgment described here; it is not a general promise that an individual believer will never experience repeated trouble.

A question to explore

How do the references to plotting in verses 9 and 11, and the announcement to Judah in verse 15, frame the promised end?