Nahum 3

Nineveh’s Downfall

¹Woe to the city of blood, totally deceitful, full of plunder, never without prey.²

³The crack of the whip and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and jolting chariot!⁴

⁵Charging horseman, flashing sword, shining spear; heaps of slain, mounds of corpses, dead bodies without end — they stumble over their dead.⁶

⁷Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute, the attractive mistress of sorcery, who treats nations and clans like merchandise by her prostitution and sorcery,⁸

⁹I am against you. This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies. I will lift your skirts over your face and display your nakedness to nations, your shame to kingdoms.¹⁰

¹¹I will throw filth on you and treat you with contempt; I will make a spectacle of you.¹²

¹³Then all who see you will recoil from you, saying, “Nineveh is devastated; who will show sympathy to her?” Where can I find anyone to comfort you?¹⁴

¹⁵Are you better than Thebes that sat along the Nile with water surrounding her, whose rampart was the sea, the river her wall?¹⁶

¹⁷Cush and Egypt were her endless source of strength; Put and Libya were among her allies.¹⁸

¹⁹Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity. Her children were also dashed to pieces at the head of every street. They cast lots for her dignitaries, and all her nobles were bound in chains.²⁰

²¹You also will become drunk; you will hide. You also will seek refuge from the enemy.²²

²³All your fortresses are fig trees with figs that ripened first; when shaken, they fall — right into the mouth of the eater!²⁴

²⁵Look, your troops are like women among you; your land’s city gates are wide open to your enemies. Fire will devour the bars of your gates.²⁶

²⁷Draw water for the siege; strengthen your fortresses. Step into the clay and tread the mortar; take hold of the brick-mold!²⁸

²⁹The fire will devour you there; the sword will cut you down. It will devour you like the young locust. Multiply yourselves like the young locust; multiply like the swarming locust!³⁰

³¹You have made your merchants more numerous than the stars of the sky. The young locust strips the land and flies away.³²

³³Your court officials are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they take off, and no one knows where they are.³⁴

³⁵King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your officers sleep. Your people are scattered across the mountains with no one to gather them together.³⁶

³⁷There is no remedy for your injury; your wound is severe. All who hear the news about you will clap their hands because of you, for who has not experienced your constant cruelty?³⁸