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Nineveh to Fall ¹ In Hebrew texts 2:1-13 is numbered 2:2-14. An attacker advances against you, Nineveh. Guard the fortress, watch the road, brace yourselves, marshal all your strength!

² The LORD will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, though destroyers have laid them waste and have ruined their vines.

³ The shields of the soldiers are red; the warriors are clad in scarlet. The metal on the chariots flashes on the day they are made ready; the spears of juniper are brandished. Hebrew; Septuagint and Syriac ready; / the horsemen rush to and fro.

⁴ The chariots storm through the streets, rushing back and forth through the squares. They look like flaming torches; they dart about like lightning.

⁵ Nineveh summons her picked troops, yet they stumble on their way. They dash to the city wall; the protective shield is put in place.

⁶ The river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses.

⁷ It is decreed The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain. that Nineveh be exiled and carried away. Her female slaves moan like doves and beat on their breasts.

⁸ Nineveh is like a pool whose water is draining away. “Stop! Stop!” they cry, but no one turns back.

⁹ Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! The supply is endless, the wealth from all its treasures!

¹⁰ She is pillaged, plundered, stripped! Hearts melt, knees give way, bodies tremble, every face grows pale.

¹¹ Where now is the lions’ den, the place where they fed their young, where the lion and lioness went, and the cubs, with nothing to fear?

¹² The lion killed enough for his cubs and strangled the prey for his mate, filling his lairs with the kill and his dens with the prey. ¹³ “I am against you,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will burn up your chariots in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will leave you no prey on the earth. The voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”