What Does Nahum 1:6 Mean in the King James?
Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Nahum uses two different Hebrew verbs for standing to ask whether anything can hold its ground when divine anger breaks loose.
THE MEANING
The verse places you before a force no human strength can withstand: indignation burns like fire, and even rock is broken apart by it. Its paired questions press on what can remain standing when anger is unleashed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that sheer strength or hardness makes you untouchable dissolves here: even rocks are shattered.
THE ROOT
יָקוּם
yāqūm
GROWS FROM
קום
Rise, stand, become established
English renders the second verb as “abide,” but יָקוּם (yāqūm, rise or stand) comes from קום (qûm, rise or stand). Alongside the first question’s עָמַד (ʿāmad, stand), the Hebrew pairs two distinct images: no one can rise into or maintain a position within this fury.
ALSO GROWS
qûm: Rise, stand
קוּם
This base form makes the verse’s “abide” a question of who can rise or remain standing within the fury.
māqôm: Place
מָקוֹם
Formed from this root, a place is where something stands; the question presses whether anyone can keep a place when fury is unleashed.
יַעֲמֹד
yaʿămōd
GROWS FROM
עמד
Stand, remain, take one’s place
The verse first asks who can stand, then who can rise or stand: עָמַד (ʿāmad, stand) and קוּם (qûm, rise or stand) are different Hebrew roots beneath two similar English ideas. The first asks whether anyone can hold a position before the indignation; the second asks whether anyone can remain within it.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāmad: Stand, remain
עָמַד
This verb is the root’s basic action, making the first question about whether anyone can hold their position before the indignation.
maʿămād: Standing, station, position
מַעֲמָד
This noun carries the root into the idea of a position one occupies, sharpening the question of who can keep their place.
THE PATTERN
When divine anger breaks out, no human strength or created refuge can withstand its force.
But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.The hills melted like wax at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:THE THREAD
If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?Both verses use עמד (ʿāmad, stand): Nahum asks who can stand before divine indignation, while the psalm asks who can stand if the LORD marks crookedness. The shared root makes Nahum’s shattered rocks echo as a question about the reader’s own capacity to remain in place.
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