Woe to Nineveh
1 Woe to
1the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder--
2no end to the prey!
2
The crack of the whip, and
3rumble of the wheel,
4galloping horse and
5bounding chariot!
3
Horsemen charging, flashing sword and
6glittering spear,
7hosts of slain, heaps of corpses, dead bodies without end-- they stumble over the bodies!
4
And all for the countless whorings of the
8prostitute,
9graceful and of deadly charms, who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms.
5
10Behold, I am against you, declares the LORD of hosts, and
11will lift up your skirts over your face; and I will make nations look at
12your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame.
6
I will throw filth at you and
13treat you with contempt and make you
14a spectacle.
7
And all who look at you
15will shrink from you and say, Wasted is
16Nineveh;
17who will grieve for her?
18Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8
19Are you better than
20Thebes that sat
21by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall?
9
22Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit;
23Put and the
24Libyans were her helpers.
10
25Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity;
26her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street; for her honored men
27lots were cast,
28and all her great men were bound in chains.
11
29You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding;
30you will seek a refuge from the enemy.
12
All your fortresses are
31like fig trees with first-ripe figs-- if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.
13
Behold, your troops
32are women in your midst. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars.
14
33Draw water for the siege;
34strengthen your forts; 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
35devour you
36like the locust. Multiply yourselves
37like the locust; multiply
38like the grasshopper!
16
You increased
39your merchants more than the stars of the heavens.
40The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
17
Your
41princes are
42like grasshoppers,
43your 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
44are asleep, O king of Assyria;
45your nobles slumber. Your people
46are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them.
19
There is no easing your hurt;
47your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you
48clap their hands over you. For
49upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?