Nahum 1:13

For I will now break their yoke from your neck and tear away your shackles.”

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — The LORD addresses Judah immediately after promising that past affliction will cease, announcing the imminent removal of Assyrian oppression. He speaks this declaration in the context of detailing the coming judgment on Nineveh.

The words — The text highlights אֶשְׁבֹּר ('eshbor), meaning "I will break," and אֲנַתֵּק ('anateq), meaning "I will tear apart," describing the physical removal of the oppressor's control.

The thread — This imagery of breaking a yoke and tearing shackles appears in Isaiah 10:27, Isaiah 9:4, and Jeremiah 2:20.

Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that divine judgment on oppressors directly results in the liberation of the afflicted, requiring the reader to trust in God's decisive intervention rather than human resistance.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

וְעַתָּ֕הve./'a.Tahand/ now אֶשְׁבֹּ֥ר'esh.BorI will break מֹטֵ֖הוּmo.Te./huyoke-bar/ his מֵֽעָלָ֑יִךְme./'a.La.yi/khfrom/ on <the>/ you וּמוֹסְרֹתַ֖יִךְu./mos.ro.Ta.yi/khand/ fetters/ your אֲנַתֵּֽק׃'a.na.TekI will tear apart

King James Version

For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder.

Cross-references

Isaiah 10:27 On that day the burden will be lifted from your shoulders, and the yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large.
Isaiah 9:4 For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor.
Jeremiah 2:20 “For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.
Psalms 107:14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke away their chains.
Isaiah 14:25 I will break Assyria in My land; I will trample him on My mountain. His yoke will be taken off My people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.”
Jeremiah 5:5 I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke and torn off the chains.
Micah 5:5 And He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land and tramples our citadels. We will raise against it seven shepherds, even eight leaders of men.