What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.
Parallel translations
- WEB What do you plot against Yahweh? He will make a full end. Affliction won’t 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 thee: they imagined a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.
- Prov 21:30There is no wisdom nor understanding nor counsel against the LORD.
- Ps 33:10The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.
- 2 Cor 10:5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
- Ps 2:1–4Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
- Nah 1:11There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the LORD, a wicked counsellor.
- Ezek 38:10–11Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
- Isa 8:9–10Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces.
- Acts 4:25–28Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
- 1 Sam 3:12In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end.
- 1 Sam 26:8Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time.
- 2 Sam 20:10But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand: so he smote him therewith in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again; and he died. So Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.
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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.