_And now will I break his yoke from upon thee, And burst thy bonds asunder. Lo, upon the mountains the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, That publisheth peace! Keep thy feasts, O Judah, Fulfil thy vows: For no more shall the wicked attempt to pass through thee; Cut off is the whole of him.[251] For Jehovah hath turned the pride of Jacob, Like to the pride of Isrāel:[252] For the plunderers plundered them, And destroyed their vine branches._ FOOTNOTES: [236] Above, pp. 78 ff., 85 ff. [237] See above, pp. 81 ff. [238] Ver. 3, if the reading be correct. [239] Gunkel amends to _in mercy_ to make the parallel exact. But see above, p. 82. [240] Gunkel’s emendation is quite unnecessary here. [241] See above, p. 83. [242] So LXX. Heb. = _for a stronghold in the day of trouble_. [243] _Thrusts into_, Wellhausen, reading ינדף or ידף for ירדף. LXX. _darkness shall pursue_. [244] Heb. and R.V. _drenched as with their drink_. LXX. _like a tangled yew_. The text is corrupt. [245] The superfluous word מלא at the end of ver. 10 Wellhausen reads as הלא at the beginning of ver. 11. [246] Usually taken as Sennacherib. [247] The Hebrew is given by the R.V. _though they be in full strength and likewise many_. LXX. _Thus saith Jehovah ruling over many waters_, reading משל מים רבים and omitting the first וכן. Similarly Syr. _Thus saith Jehovah of the heads of many waters_, על משלי מים רבים. Wellhausen, substituting מים for the first וכן, translates, _Let the great waters be ever so full, they will yet all_ ...? (misprint here) _and vanish_. For עבר read עברו with LXX., borrowing ו from next word. [248] Lit. _and I will afflict thee, I will not afflict thee again_. This rendering implies that Niniveh is the object. The A.V., _though I have afflicted thee I will afflict thee no more_, refers to Israel. [249] Omit ver. 13 and run 14 on to 12. For the curious alternation now occurs: Assyria in one verse, Judah in the other. Assyria: i. 12, 14, ii. 2 (Heb.; Eng. ii. 1), 4 ff. Judah: i. 13, ii. 1 (Heb.; Eng. i. 15), 3 (Heb.; Eng. 2). Remove these latter, as Wellhausen does, and the verses on Assyria remain a connected and orderly whole. So in the text above. [250] Syr. _make it thy sepulchre_. The Hebrew left untranslated above might be rendered _for thou art vile_. Bickell amends into _dunghills_. Lightfoot, _Chron. Temp. et Ord. Text V.T._ in Collected Works, I. 109, takes this as a prediction of Sennacherib’s murder in the temple, an interpretation which demands a date for Nahum under either Hezekiah or Manasseh. So Pusey also, p. 357. [251] LXX. _destruction_ כָּלָה, for כֻּלה. [252] Davidson: _restoreth the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel_, but when was the latter restored? CHAPTER VIII _THE SIEGE AND FALL OF NINIVEH_ NAHUM ii., iii