| 1 | Woe to the bloody city! It is full of lies and booty and [there is] no end to the plunder! |
| 2 | The cracking of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, and prancing horses and chariots rumbling
and
bounding, |
| 3 | Horsemen mounting
and
charging, the flashing sword, the gleaming spear, a multitude of slain and a great number of corpses, no end of corpses! [The horsemen] stumble over the corpses! |
| 4 | All because of the multitude of the harlotries [of Nineveh], the well-favored harlot, the mistress of deadly charms who betrays
and
sells nations through her whoredoms [idolatry] and peoples through her enchantments. |
| 5 | Behold, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will lift up your skirts over your face, and I will let the nations look on your nakedness [O Nineveh] and the kingdoms on your shame. |
| 6 | I will cast abominable things at you
and
make you filthy, treat you with contempt, and make you a gazingstock. |
| 7 | And all who look on you will shrink
and
flee from you and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will pity
and
bemoan her? Where [then] shall I seek comforters for you? |
| 8 | Are you better than No-amon [Thebes, capital of Upper Egypt], that dwelt by the rivers
or
canals, that had the waters round about her, whose rampart was a sea [the Nile] and water her wall? |
| 9 | Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and that without limit. Put and the Libyans were
her
helpers. |
| 10 | Yet she was carried away; she went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at all the street corners; lots were cast [by the Assyrian officers] for her nobles, and all her great men were bound with chains. |
| 11 | You will be drunk [Nineveh, with the cup of God’s wrath]; you will be dazed. You will seek
and
require a refuge because of the enemy. |
| 12 | All your fortresses are fig trees with early figs; if they are shaken they will fall into the mouth of the eater. |
| 13 | Behold, your troops in the midst of you are [as weak and helpless as] women; the gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies [without effort]; fire consumes your bars. |
| 14 | Draw for yourself the water [necessary] for a [long continued] siege, make strong your fortresses! Go down into the clay pits and trample the mortar; make ready the brickkiln [to burn bricks for the bulwarks]! |
| 15 | [But] there [in the very midst of these preparations] will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off; it will destroy you as the locusts [destroy]. Multiply yourselves like the licking locusts; make yourselves many like the swarming locusts! |
| 16 | You increased your merchants more than the [visible] stars of the heavens. The swarming locust spreads itself
and
destroys, and then flies away. |
| 17 | Your princes are like the grasshoppers and your marshals like the swarms of locusts which encamp in the hedges on a cold day—but when the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where they are. |
| 18 | Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles are lying still [in death]. Your people are scattered on the mountains and there is no one to gather them. |
| 19 | There is no healing of your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over [what has happened to] you. For upon whom has not your [unceasing] evil come continually? |
Cross references:
-
Nahum 3:1 : Ezek. 24:6, 9, 10; Hab. 2:12.
|