Nahum 1:8
“But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →God will sweep away Nineveh as with a flood, bringing it to a complete end, while darkness chases down His foes.
What Does Nahum 1:8 Mean?
The word but turns from the refuge of verse seven back to those who set themselves against God. Nineveh sat by the Tigris and depended on its rivers; the image of an overwhelming flood making a complete end would prove strikingly fitting, for ancient accounts tell of the city's defenses failing when waters breached them. Darkness, the opposite of the light of God's favor, is pictured hunting the enemy down, allowing no escape into the night.
The contrast with the previous verse is deliberate and stark. The same waters that destroy the proud cannot touch the one sheltered in God. Judgment here is not chaos but a thorough, purposeful end to violence that had ravaged the nations for generations. For the oppressed this is gospel: the machinery of cruelty will not run forever. And it presses a question on every reader, where do you stand? The flood and the fortress are the same God; safety is found only by trusting Him, never by outrunning Him.