The scatterer has come up against you.
Man the ramparts; watch the road;
collect all your strength.
2 For the Lord is restoring the majesty of
as the majesty of Israel,
for plunderers have plundered them
and ruined their branches.
3 The shield of his mighty men is red;
his soldiers are clothed in scarlet.
The chariots come with flashing metal
on the day he musters them;
the cypress spears are brandished.
4 The chariots race madly through the
they rush to and fro through the
squares; they gleam like torches;
they dart like lightning.
5 He remembers his officers;
the siege tower is set up.
6 The river gates are opened;
7 its mistress is stripped; she is carried
off, her slave girls lamenting,
and beating their breasts.
9 Plunder the silver, plunder the gold!
There is no end of the treasure
or of the wealth of all precious things.
10 Desolate! Desolation and ruin!
Hearts melt and knees tremble;
11 Where is the lions' den,
the feeding place of the young lions,
where the lion and lioness went,
where his cubs were, with none to dis-
12 The lion tore enough for his cubs
and strangled prey for his lionesses;
he filled his caves with prey
and his dens with torn flesh.
13 Behold, I am against you, declares
the Lord of hosts, and I will burn
your chariots in smoke, and the sword
shall devour your young lions. I will cut
off your prey from the earth, and the
voice of your messengers shall no longer
3:1 Woe to the bloody city,
all full of lies and plunder—
2 The crack of the whip, and rumble of
the wheel, galloping horse
flashing sword and glittering spear,
hosts of slain, heaps of corpses,
they stumble over the bodies!
114 And all for the countless whorings of
graceful and of deadly charms,
who betrays nations with her whorings,
and peoples with her charms.
5 Behold, I am against you,
declares the Lord of hosts,
and will lift up your skirts over your face;
and I will make nations look at your na-
kedness and kingdoms at your shame.
6 I will throw filth at you
and treat you with contempt
and make you a spectacle.
7 And all who look at you will shrink
from you and say, “Wasted
is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?”
Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8 Are you better than Thebes
her rampart a sea, and water her wall?
Egypt too, and that without limit;
Put and the Libyans were her helpers.
10 Yet she became an exile;
her infants were dashed in pieces
at the head of every street;
for her honored men lots were cast,
and all her great men were bound in
11 You also will be drunken;
you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are like fig trees
with first-ripe figs— if shaken they fall
into the mouth of the eater.
are wide open to your enemies;
fire has devoured your bars.
14 Draw water for the siege;
go into the clay; tread the mortar;
take hold of the brick mold!
15 There will the fire devour you;
the sword will cut you off.
It will devour you like the locust.
Multiply yourselves like the locust;
multiply like the grasshopper!
16 You increased your merchants
more than the stars of the heavens.
The locust spreads its wings and flies
17 Your princes are like grasshoppers,
your scribes like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences in a day of cold—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
no one knows where they are.
18 Your shepherds are asleep,
O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber.
Your people are scattered on the moun-
tains with none to gather them.
19 There is no easing your hurt;
All who hear the news about you
clap their hands over you.
For upon whom has not come
