Passage

Nahum 1.7

Book: Nahum · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

5. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt; and the earth is upheaved at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. 6. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by him.

7. Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that take refuge in him.

But with an over-running flood he will make a full end of her place, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. 9. What do ye devise against Jehovah? he will make a full end; affliction shall not rise up the second time. (Nahum 1:5-9, ASV)

WEB

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

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 Yahweh? He will make a full end. Affliction won’t rise up the second time. (Nahum 1:5-9, WEB)

KJV

5. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. 6. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. ^{abide: Heb. stand up}

7. The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. ^{strong hold: or, strength}

But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. 9. What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. (Nahum 1:5-9, KJV)

YLT

5. Mountains have shaken because of Him, And the hills have been melted; And lifted up [is] the earth at His presence, And the world and all dwelling in it. 6. Before His indignation who doth stand? And who riseth up in the heat of His anger? His fury hath been poured out like fire, And the rocks have been broken by Him.

7. Good [is] Jehovah for a strong place in a day of distress. And He knoweth those trusting in Him.

And with a flood passing over, An end He maketh of its place, And His enemies doth darkness pursue. 9. What do we devise against Jehovah? An end He is making, arise not twice doth distress. (Nahum 1:5-9, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the prophet Nahum
Audience: Judah, in an oracle pronounced against Nineveh, capital of Assyria
Location: Judah
Time period: between 663 BC (the fall of Thebes, referenced at 3:8) and 612 BC (the fall of Nineveh)

Theological reading

The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that put their trust in him.

The verse is a single bright line inside one of the fiercest books in the canon, and reading it apart from that setting loses most of its force. Nahum is an oracle of judgment on Nineveh, the capital of an empire that had deported the northern kingdom and besieged Jerusalem, and whose own royal inscriptions boast about flaying and impaling the conquered. The opening hymn describes God as jealous and avenging, drying up the sea, melting the mountains.

Verse 7 sits immediately after that, joined to it. The same God who is terrible to Nineveh is a stronghold to those who trust him, and the book presents these as one fact rather than two moods. Maoz is a fortified refuge, a military word, and it belongs to the same field as the verses around it. The comfort offered is not that God is gentle but that his power is on a particular side.

He knoweth them that put their trust in him uses yada, the verb of relational knowledge rather than of information. In the context of an invading empire, being known by God is the guarantee that the individual is not lost in the scale of events.

The book is essential to any honest treatment of divine judgment. Nahum was written to a small nation living under a superpower's boot, and its announcement of Nineveh's fall is good news to its first hearers. Readers who find the imprecatory material embarrassing should notice who is speaking and to whom. See Problem of Evil.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

H2896 - tov, tov, Strong's H2896
H3045 - yada, yada, Strong's H3045
H3068 - YHWH, YHWH, Strong's H3068

Quoted in

Concepts:

Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.