Limitless Word
What do you plot against Yahweh? He will make a full end. Affliction won’t rise up the second time.
Nahum 1:9 · World English Bible
Parallel translations
  • KJV What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.
  • BSB Whatever you plot against the LORD, He will bring to an end. Affliction will not rise up a second time.
  • NKJV What do you conspire against the Lord? He will make an utter end of it. Affliction will not rise up a second time.
  • NASB ¶Whatever you devise against the Lord, He will make a complete end of it. Distress will not rise up twice.
  • NLT Why are you scheming against the Lord? He will destroy you with one blow; he won’t need to strike twice!

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

God challenges Nineveh's scheming, declaring he will make a full end so that affliction will not rise a second time. Their plots against the Lord are futile.

Overview

Assyria had repeatedly afflicted God's people, but Nahum announces that this oppression will be ended once and for all. To plot against the Lord is to court certain destruction. The promise that 'affliction won't rise up the second time' foreshadows the final and complete victory God secures over all his enemies through Christ.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 12

  • Ps 21:11For they intended evil against you. They plotted evil against you which cannot succeed.
  • Prov 21:30There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against Yahweh.
  • Ps 33:10Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.
  • 2 Cor 10:5throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ;
  • Ps 2:1–4Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
  • Nah 1:11There is one gone out of you, who devises evil against Yahweh, who counsels wickedness.
  • Ezek 38:10–11Thus says the Lord Yahweh: It shall happen in that day, that things shall come into your mind, and you shall devise an evil device:
  • Isa 8:9–10Make an uproar, you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered! Dress for battle, and be shattered!
  • Acts 4:25–28who by the mouth of your servant, David, said, ‘Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?
  • 1 Sam 3:12In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from the beginning even to the end.
  • 1 Sam 26:8Then Abishai said to David, “God has delivered up your enemy into your hand today. Now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.”
  • 2 Sam 20:10But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand. So he struck him with it in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn’t strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued Sheba the son of Bichri.

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Nahum videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Nahum 1:9YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on NahumMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The certain judgment on Nineveh and the comfort that 'the LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble' point to Christ, who is both the refuge of his people and the judge of their enemies.

How Nahum 1:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.