The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 A curse is on the town of blood; it is full of deceit and violent acts; and there is no end to the taking of life.
1
Doomed is the lying, murderous city, full of wealth to be looted and plundered!
2 The noise of the whip, and the noise of thundering wheels; horses rushing and war-carriages jumping,
2
Listen! The crack of the whip, the rattle of wheels, the gallop of horses, the jolting of chariots!
3 Horsemen driving forward, and the shining sword and the bright spear: and a great number of wounded, and masses of dead bodies; they are falling over the bodies of the dead:
3
Cavalry troops charge, swords flash, spears gleam! Corpses are piled high, dead bodies without number - men stumble over them!
4 Because of all the false ways of the loose woman, expert in attraction and wise in secret arts, who takes nations in the net of her false ways, and families through her secret arts.
4
Nineveh the whore is being punished. Attractive and full of deadly charms, she enchanted nations and enslaved them.
5 See, I am against you, says the Lord of armies, and I will have your skirts pulled over your face, and let the nations see you unclothed, and the kingdoms your shame.
5
The Lord Almighty says, "I will punish you, Nineveh! I will strip you naked and let the nations see you, see you in all your shame.
6 I will make you completely disgusting and full of shame, and will put you up to be looked at by all.
6
I will treat you with contempt and cover you with filth. People will stare at you in horror.
7 And it will come about that all who see you will go in flight from you and say, Nineveh is made waste: who will be weeping for her? where am I to get comforters for her?
7
All who see you will shrink back. They will say, "Nineveh lies in ruins! Who has any sympathy for her? Who will want to comfort her?' "
8 Are you better than No-amon, seated on the Nile streams, with waters all round her; whose wall was the sea and her earthwork the waters?
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Nineveh, are you any better than Thebes, the capital of Egypt? She too had a river to protect her like a wall - the Nile was her defense.
9 Ethiopia was her strength and Egyptians without number; Put and Lubim were her helpers.
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She ruled Ethiopia and Egypt, there was no limit to her power; Libya was her ally.
10 But even she has been taken away, she has gone away as a prisoner: even her young children are smashed to bits at the top of all the streets: the fate of her honoured men is put to the decision of chance, and all her great men are put in chains.
10
Yet the people of Thebes were carried off into exile. At every street corner their children were beaten to death. Their leading men were carried off in chains and divided among their captors.
11 And you will be overcome with wine, you will become feeble; you will be looking for a safe place from those who are fighting against you.
11
Nineveh, you too will fall into a drunken stupor! You too will try to escape from your enemies.
12 All your walled places will be like fig-trees and your people like the first figs, falling at a shake into the mouth which is open for them.
12
All your fortresses will be like fig trees with ripe figs: shake the trees, and the fruit falls right into your mouth!
13 See, the people who are in you are women; the doorways of your land are wide open to your attackers: the locks of your doors have been burned away in the fire.
13
Your soldiers are helpless, and your country stands defenseless before your enemies. Fire will destroy the bars across your gates.
14 Get water for the time when you are shut in, make strong your towns: go into the potter's earth, stamping it down with your feet, make strong the brickworks.
14
Draw water to prepare for a siege, and strengthen your fortresses! Trample the clay to make bricks, and get the brick molds ready!
15 There the fire will make you waste; you will be cut off by the sword: make yourself as great in number as the worms, as great in number as the locusts.
15
No matter what you do, you will still be burned to death or killed in battle. You will be wiped out like crops eaten up by locusts. You multiplied like locusts!
16 Let your traders be increased more than the stars of heaven:
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You produced more merchants than there are stars in the sky! But now they are gone, like locusts that spread their wings and fly away.
17 Your crowned ones are like the locusts, and your scribes like the clouds of insects which take cover in the walls on a cold day, but when the sun comes up they go in flight, and are seen no longer in their place.
17
Your officials are like a swarm of locusts that stay in the walls on a cold day. But when the sun comes out, they fly away, and no one knows where they have gone!
18 Sorrow! how are the keepers of your flock sleeping, O king of Assyria! your strong men are at rest; your people are wandering on the mountains, and there is no one to get them together.
18
Emperor of Assyria, your governors are dead, and your noblemen are asleep forever! Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one to bring them home again.
19 Your pain may not be made better; you are wounded to death: all those hearing the news about you will be waving their hands in joy over you: for who has not undergone the weight of your evil-doing again and again?
19
There is no remedy for your injuries, and your wounds cannot be healed. All those who hear the news of your destruction clap their hands for joy. Did anyone escape your endless cruelty?
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.