The Message Bible MSG
New Living Translation NLT
1 he juggernaut's coming! Post guards, lay in supplies. Get yourselves together, get ready for the big battle.
1
Your enemy is coming to crush you, Nineveh. Man the ramparts! Watch the roads! Prepare your defenses! Call out your forces!
2 God has restored the Pride of Jacob, the Pride of Israel. Israel's lived through hard times. He's been to hell and back.
2
Even though the destroyer has destroyed Judah, the LORD will restore its honor. Israel’s vine has been stripped of branches, but he will restore its splendor.
3 Weapons flash in the sun, the soldiers splendid in battle dress, Chariots burnished and glistening, ready to charge, A spiked forest of brandished spears, lethal on the horizon.
3
Shields flash red in the sunlight! See the scarlet uniforms of the valiant troops! Watch as their glittering chariots move into position, with a forest of spears waving above them.
4 The chariots pour into the streets. They fill the public squares, Flaming like torches in the sun, like lightning darting and flashing.
4
The chariots race recklessly along the streets and rush wildly through the squares. They flash like firelight and move as swiftly as lightning.
5 The Assyrian king rallies his men, but they stagger and stumble. They run to the ramparts to stem the tide, but it's too late.
5
The king shouts to his officers; they stumble in their haste, rushing to the walls to set up their defenses.
6 Soldiers pour through the gates. The palace is demolished.
6
The river gates have been torn open! The palace is about to collapse!
7 Soon it's all over: Nineveh stripped, Nineveh doomed, Maids and slaves moaning like doves, beating their breasts.
7
Nineveh’s exile has been decreed, and all the servant girls mourn its capture. They moan like doves and beat their breasts in sorrow.
8 Nineveh is a tub from which they've pulled the plug. Cries go up, "Do something! Do something!" but it's too late. Nineveh's soon empty - nothing.
8
Nineveh is like a leaking water reservoir! The people are slipping away. “Stop, stop!” someone shouts, but no one even looks back.
9 Other cries come: "Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! A bonanza of plunder! Take everything you want!"
9
Loot the silver! Plunder the gold! There’s no end to Nineveh’s treasures— its vast, uncounted wealth.
10 Doom! Damnation! Desolation! Hearts sink, knees fold, stomachs retch, faces blanch.
10
Soon the city is plundered, empty, and ruined. Hearts melt and knees shake. The people stand aghast, their faces pale and trembling.
11 So, what happened to the famous and fierce Assyrian lion And all those cute Assyrian cubs? To the lion and lioness Cozy with their cubs, fierce and fearless?
11
Where now is that great Nineveh, that den filled with young lions? It was a place where people—like lions and their cubs— walked freely and without fear.
12 To the lion who always returned from the hunt with fresh kills for lioness and cubs, The lion lair heaped with bloody meat, blood and bones for the royal lion feast?
12
The lion tore up meat for his cubs and strangled prey for his mate. He filled his den with prey, his caverns with his plunder.
13 "Assyria, I'm your enemy," says God-of-the-Angel-Armies. "I'll torch your chariots. They'll go up in smoke. 'Lion Country' will be strewn with carcasses. The war business is over - you're out of work: You'll have no more wars to report, No more victories to announce. You're out of war work forever."
13
“I am your enemy!” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. “Your chariots will soon go up in smoke. Your young men will be killed in battle. Never again will you plunder conquered nations. The voices of your proud messengers will be heard no more.”
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.