Nahum 1:2 (WEB)

Passage

Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies.

Nearby Context

Nahum 1:1 A revelation about Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

Nahum 1:2 Yahweh is a jealous God and avenges. Yahweh avenges and is full of wrath. Yahweh takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he maintains wrath against his enemies.

Nahum 1:3 Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Yahweh has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

Nahum 1:4 He rebukes the sea, and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan languishes, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languishes.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "yahweh", "jealous", "avenges", "full", and "wrath". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "yahweh" and "jealous", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 1's "A revelation about Nineveh The book of..." into verse 3's "Yahweh is slow to anger and great...", so "yahweh" and "jealous" belong inside that flow. In Nahum context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "yahweh" and "jealous" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.