The Bible in Basic English BBE
Orthodox Jewish Bible OJB
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.
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Hoy (woe) to the ir damim (bloody city)! It is all full of lies and booty; no end to the plunder;
2 The noise of the whip, and the noise of thundering wheels; horses rushing and war-carriages jumping,
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The crack of the shot (whip), and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing susim, and of the jolting merkavah (chariot);
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:
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The parash (horsemen, cavalry) charging, the flash of the cherev and the glittering spear; and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of dead bodies; and there is no end of their geviyot (corpses); they stumble over their geviyot;
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.
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Because of the multitude of the harlotries of the alluring zonah, the ba’alat keshafim (the mistress of sorceries), that enslaveth Goyim through her prostitutions, and mishpochot through her keshafim;
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.
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Hineni, I am against thee, saith Hashem Tzva’os; and I will lift thy skirts over thy faces, and I will show the Goyim thy nakedness, and the mamlachot thy shame.
6 I will make you completely disgusting and full of shame, and will put you up to be looked at by all.
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And I (Hashem) will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee contemptibly vile, and will make thee a spectacle.
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?
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And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is in ruins; who will bemoan her? From where shall I seek menachamim (comforters) for thee?
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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Art thou better than No Amon (Thebes), that was situated on the Nile, that had the mayim round about it, whose rampart was the yam, and her waters were her chomah?
9 Ethiopia was her strength and Egyptians without number; Put and Lubim were her helpers.
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Ethiopia and Mitzrayim were her strength, and it was boundless; Put and Luvim (Libya) were her allies.
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.
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Yet she went into golus, she went into captivity; her olalim also were dashed in pieces at the head of all the streets; and they cast goral (lots) for her honorable men, and all her gedolim were bound in chains.
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.
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Thou also shalt be drunken, thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek maoz from the enemy.
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.
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All thy strongholds shall be like te’enim (fig trees) with the first ripe figs; if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the peh (mouth) of the ochel (eater).
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.
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Hinei, thy troops in the midst of thee are nashim (women); the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies; the eish shall devour thy (gate) bars.
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.
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Draw thee water for the matzor (siege), fortify thy strongholds, go unto clay, and tread the mortar, repair the brickwork.
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.
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There shall the eish devour thee, the cherev shall consume thee, it shall eat thee up like the grasshopper. Make thyself many as the grasshopper, make thyself many as the arbeh (locust).
16 Let your traders be increased more than the stars of heaven:
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Thou hast multiplied thy merchants more than the kokhavim of HaShomayim; but, like the locust, they strip the land, then 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.
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Thy commanders are as the swarming locusts, and thy officials as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges on a cold day, but when the shemesh ariseth they flee away, and their place is whereabouts unknown.
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.
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Thy ro’im (shepherds) slumber, O melech of Asshur (Assyria); thy nobles shall dwell in the dust; thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.
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?
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There is no healing of thy shever (fracture, injury); thy wound is grievous; all that hear the news of thee shall clap their hands over thy fall; for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed tamid (continually)?
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
The Orthodox Jewish Bible fourth edition, OJB. Copyright 2002,2003,2008,2010, 2011 by Artists for Israel International. All rights reserved.