Introduction

This document is about the destruction of Nineveh (Heb. Ninveh), the capital city of Assyria—an ancient enemy of Israel. It was written between 663 B.C. and 612 B.C. The prophet Nahum was pleased that Yahweh destroyed Nineveh, because that was a sign that God does indeed punish sinners.

A large portion of the document is poetry, with some narrative portions also included. Unlike English poetry which can often focus on rhyme, Hebrew poetry often includes parallelism where the same thought is repeated or extended using different words. The OET Readers’ Version tries to assist the reader by starting the second line in a parallel set with the symbol ≈.

It can take a little bit of effort to decipher this message—to see who’s being spoken to—because it’s often alternating between Yahweh declaring good news to his people, and declaring bad news to Nineveh.

This is still a very early look into the unfinished text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.