The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 Woe to the city of blood, steeped in lies, full of prey, with no end to the plunder!
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.
2 The crack of the whip! The rattle of wheels! Galloping horses, jolting chariots,
2
The noise of the whip, and the noise of thundering wheels; horses rushing and war-carriages jumping,
3 cavalry charging, swords flashing, spears glittering - and hosts of slain, heaps of bodies; there is no end to the corpses; they stumble over their corpses.
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:
4 "Because of the continual whoring of this whore, this alluring mistress of sorcery, who sells nations with her whoring and families with her sorcery;
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.
5 I am against you," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot. "I will uncover your skirts on your face; I will show the nations your private parts and the kingdoms your shame.
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.
6 I will pelt you with disgusting filth, disgrace you and make a spectacle of you.
6
I will make you completely disgusting and full of shame, and will put you up to be looked at by all.
7 Then all who see you will recoil from you; they will say, 'Ninveh is destroyed!' Who will mourn for her? Where can I find people to comfort you?"
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?
8 Are you any better than No-Amon, located among the streams of the Nile, with water all around her, the flood her wall of defense?
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?
9 Ethiopia and Egypt gave her boundless strength, Put and Luvim were there to help you.
9
Ethiopia was her strength and Egyptians without number; Put and Lubim were her helpers.
10 Still she went captive into exile, her infants torn to pieces at every streetcorner. Lots were drawn for her nobles, and all her great men were bound in chains.
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.
11 You too, [Ninveh,] will be drunk; your senses completely overcome. You too will seek a refuge from the enemy.
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.
12 All your fortifications will be like fig trees with early ripening figs; the moment they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.
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.
13 Look at your troops! They behave like women! Your country's gates are wide open to your foes; fire has consumed their bars.
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.
14 Draw water for the siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Go down in the clay, tread the mortar, Take hold of the mold for bricks!
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.
15 There the fire will burn you up; and the sword will cut you down; it will devour you like grasshoppers. Make yourselves as many as grasshoppers, Make yourselves as many as locusts!
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.
16 You had more merchants than stars in the sky. The locust sheds its skin and flies away.
16
Let your traders be increased more than the stars of heaven:
17 Your guards are like grasshoppers, your marshals like swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun rises they fly away; they vanish to no one knows where.
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.
18 Your shepherds are slumbering, king of Ashur. Your leaders are asleep. Your people are scattered all over the mountains, with no one to round them up.
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.
19 Your wound cannot be healed. Your injury is fatal. Everyone hearing the news about you claps his hands in joy over you. For who has not been overwhelmed by your relentless cruelty?
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?
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.