Nahum 1:11
What does Nahum 1:11 mean?
A plain-English look at Nahum 1:11 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Nahum 1:11 means
From within Nineveh there emerges one who devises evil against Jehovah and counsels wickedness. Whether king, general, or counselor, this figure embodies the city’s hostility to God. His plans are not merely against Judah; they are against the Lord Himself, because to assault God’s people is to challenge their God. Identifying a leader focuses the indictment: evil has a face and voice in Assyria’s court. Yet the verse also hints that the source of trouble is not outside but arises from the city’s own heart. The next verses will answer this arrogant counsel with God’s own decrees of cutting down and deliverance.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000There is one gone forth out of thee, that deviseth evil against Jehovah, that counselleth wickedness.
KJV
King James Version · 1611There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counsellor.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901There is one gone forth out of thee, that deviseth evil against Jehovah, that counselleth wickedness.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949One has gone out from you who is designing evil against the Lord, whose purposes are of no value.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862From thee hath come forth a deviser of evil Against Jehovah--a worthless counsellor.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Out of thee shall come forth one that imagineth evil against the Lord, contriving treachery in his mind.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Out of thee is gone forth one that imagineth evil against Jehovah, a wicked counsellor.
Context
After describing the enemies’ doomed condition, Nahum pinpoints a specific instigator, intensifying the moral stakes. This prepares for the alternating oracles in verses 12–14, where God addresses both Judah and Nineveh. The reader should notice the shift in pronouns that will mark the change in audience. The identification of a wicked counselor makes the following divine pronouncements feel like courtroom sentences responding to deliberate rebellion.
v.10For entangled like thorns, and drunken as with their drink, they are consumed utterly as dry stubble.
v.11This passage
v.12Thus saith Jehovah: Though they be in full strength, and likewise many, even so shall they be cut down, and he shall pass away. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- 2 Samuel 20:1
And there happened to be there a base fellow, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew the trumpet, and said, We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel.
- 2 Chronicles 32:15
Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you after this manner, neither believe ye him; for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of my hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of my hand?
- 2 Kings 18:30
neither let Hezekiah make you trust in Jehovah, saying, Jehovah will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
- 1 Samuel 2:12
Now the sons of Eli were base men; they knew not Jehovah.
- 2 Kings 19:22
Whom hast thou defied and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
- Isaiah 10:7
Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.
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